Lucknow's bloodthirsty doctor couple exploited children from poor families
About 10,000 children were prompted to sell blood repeatedly, violating all health norms, and no tests were ever carried out as to whether the collected blood was contaminated.
They soaked their greed in blood. And so a doctor couple in Lucknow had no qualms in luring children - as young as eight years to sell blood for a paltry Rs 500.
The sinister business had been going on for about six years and the duo allegedly minted money - about Rs 4 crore from their nefarious operations. About 10,000 children were prompted to sell blood repeatedly, violating all health norms, and no tests were ever carried out as to whether the collected blood was contaminated. To avoid scrutiny, fake names were recorded as donors, who in reality were children from poor families. Touts were deployed to lure children and it seems there was a nexus between the couple and local hospitals.
All of it came to an end on August 7 when the police and medical administration busted the pathology centre following complaints from the parents of the victim. The centre has been sealed and two people were arrested. Allegedly run by Dr VK Kohli and his wife Dr Chitra Kohli, the Kohli Blood Bank and Components Pvt Ltd was carrying out this business for the last six years.
According to an estimate, the centre collected blood from over 10,000 children across the years, and spent about Rs10 lakh for this purpose. Initially they used to pay Rs 100 to the children. According to another estimate, the centre earned about Rs 4 crore so far from this business. It has been alleged that the centre used to record fake names of the donors and never bothered to make the donors fill up the form which is mandatory.
Sarvesh Kumar Mishra - circle officer of Chawk area who conducted the raid along with city magistrate Shailesh Kumar Mishra and deputy chief medical officer Dr Rajendra Kumar in the pathology centre in Kanchan Market - said: "The centre's manager VK Bhatnagar and laboratory technician Santram Yadav have been arrested." Bhatnagar told the police that the doctor couple has gone to US for some work. However, the police are trying to verify his claim. "We had received a complaint from a family that the doctors lured their kid and took his blood.
Later, similar complaints were received from family members of two kids. The centre had paid Rs 500 to each kid after taking their blood. The children recognised the staff when we brought them to the pathology centres, which had deployed agents to bring children. One Himanshu Kashyap alias Ghazni had brought these three children," Mishra said. Lucknow chief medical officer Dr SNS Yadav said Dr Sunjan Baga and Mukesh Puri's names are recorded as medical officers of the pathology centre. "We will not spare anybody," Yadav said. When the team conducted raid on Friday, one Mohammad Faizi was giving his blood. However, his name was mentioned in the donor's register as Vijay Shankar.
It has been reported that Faizi was under treatment in B-Hope Hospital in Mohana Road area. Police officers and officers of the drug administration deapartment raided Shekhar Hospital and Indira Diagnostics in Lucknow and also seized over 200 blood samples. As per records, 137 people have donated blood since July 28. A total of 37 units of blood were found in freezers. There were many donors whose blood was taken twice since July 27. What is most alarming is that never used to check the blood for bacterial infection. Over 150 samples of blood have been recovered. The samples have been sent to KGMU for culture test. Dr Tulika Chandra, in-charge of blood bank at KGMU, said: "We will test for HIV, Hepatitis and haemoglobin. Reports will be out in three days."