Organ trafficking ring: Police apprehend doctor

Abbasi said the court could not take up the bail pleas of the four accused in custody and had deferred those hearings

RAWALPINDI: The Rawat police have reportedly rounded up Dr Raja Mehmood, allegedly an active member of the organ trafficking ring busted last Saturday in Rawalpindi.

Police investigators on Thursday produced the doctor before a court of law and obtained his physical remand for further investigation, said City Police Officer (CPO) Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi.

CPO Abbasi said that a special police team had been formed to arrest members of the ring who are still at large including Dr Zahid Iqbal, the ring leader and owner of the Kidney Centre Hospital in Morgah, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Dr Tauseef Ahmed, and cashier Laeeq. The special team was working under the supervision of SP Saddar Circle.

He said that the police team, on a tip off, raided a place in Morgah late on Wednesday and apprehended Dr Raja Mehmood. He was later shifted to Rawat police station for questioning.

He said that the accused doctor was presented in court on Thursday morning to obtain physical remand for further probe. Abbasi claimed the police had intensified a manhunt for other members of the ring and would arrest them soon.

The CPO further noted that the court had completed recording the statements of 24 people, including four women, who were recovered by the police during a raid at a plaza in a private housing society.

He said the court could not take up the bail pleas of the four accused in custody and had deferred those hearings.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2016.