Seven charged in Indian organ trafficking

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BANGALORE, India, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Seven people, including government workers, were arrested Saturday in Bangalore, India, on suspicion of being involved in human organ trafficking, police said.

The suspects included a revenue inspector and a contract worker in the Food and Civil Supplies Office, the Press Trust of India reported.

Police Superintendent Anupam Agarwal said the arrests exposed a scheme in which human kidneys were bought and sold.

The Dec. 31 arrest of two people who allegedly lured poor people into selling their kidneys resulted in the arrest Saturday of the man who allegedly created and provided false documents for the kidney transplants, the police official said.

Agarwal said the suspects charged people seeking a kidney transplant between $9,000 and $18,000 for an organ. The person who sold the kidney received only between 10 percent and 20 percent of that money, with the rest going to the suspects.

The police superintendent said an investigation was under way to see whether any hospital officials were involved in the alleged transplant scheme.