A judicial magistrate on Tuesday extended by three days the physical remand of seven men accused of running an illegal organ transplant business and handed them over to the North Cantonment police.
Investigation officer (IO) Muhammad Shafique produced the accused, Dr Anees, Dr Mubashar, Mushtaq Ahmad, Muhammad Imran, Sagher Younis, Nadeem Fayyaz and Ali Akbar before Magistrate Malik Shafique Ahmad.
The IO asked the court to extend the remand by seven days as three more accused_Dr Sanaullah, a surgeon at General Hospital, Dr Imran Ali of Mayo Hospital and Khursheed were still at large. Advocate Rizwan Chaudhry, counsel for the accused, said that the police had not updated the court about the case progress during the earlier remand. The IO said that the accused were being interrogated and raids were being conducted to arrest the rest of the three men.
He said that those arrested belonged to a professional kidney theft gang that had been working for more than a year. He said that they had rented a house in Alfaisal Town, from where they were arrested.
Advocate Chaudhry told the court that his clients ran a dispensary and treated patients free of charge. He said that they had nothing to do with kidney transplants. After hearing both sides, the judge extended the physical remand of the accused by three days.
Meanwhile, Sub Inspector Shafiq associated with the investigation said that over 40 kidneys had been transplanted by the accused over the past year. He claimed that Dr Sanaullah had bought a house in Model Town’s Block-J worth Rs23.8 million a month ago.
Dr Imran, he said, owned properties in several areas of the city. Cantt Division SP Amin Bokhari said that the accused made around Rs4 million per transplant.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2011.
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