The Lucknow police, on Sunday, busted a gang that was involved in human organ trafficking and selling kidneys.
The four persons arrested on Sunday confessed that they had lured seven people to sell their kidneys to a hospital in Chandigarh.
The four accused — identified as Hari Shankar Maurya, Dilip Nigam, Vinod Dubey and Harish Prajapati — were arrested from near the Pakri Pul and several fake papers, seals, a CPU and a computer have also been recovered from their possession.
One of the accused is a school teacher while one is a Class 9 student.
The police stumbled on the accused persons while investigating the disappearance of a one Dinesh Bhattacharya, a resident of Ashiana colony, who went missing on December 19. Dinesh was last seen in the company of the four accused persons.
After the arrests of the accused, the police also managed to recover Dinesh who had been held captive by the four. DIG D.K. Thakur told reporters that during interrogation, the four accused confessed that they used to lure poor people with money and liquor and get their kidneys surgically removed and later sold at high prices outside the state. The gang members told the police that the kidney transplant racket was operated by them and that they used to lure people to Silver Hox Hospital and Shivalik Hospital in Chandigarh.
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Biggest Santa on sand on Puri beach
Akshaya Kumar Sahoo
Bhubaneswar, Dec. 25
Sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik on Sunday created the world’s largest sand Santa Claus on Orissa’s Puri beach, 65 km from here, marking Christmas.
The 35-foot-high and 100-foot-long Santa Claus with the message “Peace and Prosperity: Health and Happiness” inscribed on it, attracted a huge audience, including foreign tourists.
Sudarsan along with his 15 students and 100 labourers had begun working on creation on Thursday in which 1,800 tonnes of sand was used.
Besides Santa, the sand artist and his team also created images of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary on the beach.