An alleged main suspect in an international human organ trafficking racket based out of Kerala was taken into custody at Kochi International Airport by the Kerala Police following a tip-off from Central agencies. Sabith Nasser, a resident of Valappad in the Thrissur district, has been identified as the accused.
According to reports, he was the primary suspect in the kidney sales to foreign patients in Saudi Arabia and Iran. To sell organs, Nasser used to entice poor people from Kerala and other states, transport them to Dubai, and then from there to Saudi Arabia and Iran. Authorities informed that while the accused amassed enormous sums of money from the relatives of the recipients, the donors received very little.
The investigation team found evidence of Nasser’s direct involvement in the racket. Allegedly, he is the mastermind of the organ trafficking mafia. Money transactions connected with the case were recovered from his phone.
Nassar arranged organ recipients and donors. Once the donors are found, the money for the organ will be confirmed. The package ranged from 30 lakhs to 40 lakhs, of which the victims received less than five.
After this, the donor is smuggled into Iran. The investigation has found that victims were smuggled to Iran via Kuwait from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi. Nasser was caught while returning after taking people like this.
There is strong suspicion that the organ trade has links with terrorists. The ongoing investigation team has not been able to confirm that the victims of organ trafficking have returned from Iran. All the victims are young.
The police investigation revealed that the accused had been working in connection with the racket since 2019. Initially, the accused gave a list of 20 victims to the investigation team but later changed his statement to say that around 30 people were taken. The NIA is also probing whether the incident has a terrorist link. NIA and IB questioned Nassar.
Nasser had admitted to the police that most of the organ traffickers were youths from Bengaluru and Hyderabad. With this report being handed over to the Union Home Ministry, the NIA will likely take over the case. The police are also investigating Shemeer, a native of Palakkad, who Naseer allegedly victimized.
The accused has four bank accounts, all opened using different addresses in Thrissur. Money from the organ trade reached Nassar’s account through ‘friends.’ Financial transactions with recipients were also done through cryptocurrency.
The police found four passports from the accused. The police are also investigating how Nasser obtained a passport through an address at Valapad, where he stayed for only ten days.
Nassar claimed that he went into this illicit trade after he was forced to donate his kidney. He said there are many agents in Bharat, and they are controlled by a doctor in Hyderabad. He added he never met that doctor.
However, the investigation team did not believe this statement. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will likely take over the case, and a special investigation team was formed under the leadership of Ernakulam Rural SP.
Indications are that people from Kerala have also become victims of the organ trade. Reports show that the organ trade was done by finding economically backward people and tempting them. Organ mafias have exploited many people in Mullassery panchayat and the coastal region of Thrissur.
About seven people, including men and women, from Mullassery Panchayat alone donated their organs (kidneys and liver are mainly trafficked). CA Sabu, former president of Mullassery Panchayat, said that the organ donation was carried out with the ease with which women remove their bangles.
Sabu’s letter also stated that there are indications that the livers of two people and the kidneys of five people were sold in this way. In the letter, Sabu expressed suspicion that the organ mafia is also using trained women as middlemen to trap victims.
Sabu’s letter to the Chief Minister last November has also come out. Complaints were made to the Chief Minister and the Health Minister about the incident, but the investigation was not intensified. Allegedly, the inquiry was wound up in a hurry.
After his wife left him, Naseer stayed in his sister’s house and rented houses where he came and went. He was well-settled in Iran. He claimed that many kidney transplant procedures took place at Faridi Khan Hospital in Iran. Is Naseer trying to save Kerala-based hospitals?
Top private hospitals in Kerala cater to hundreds of foreigners from Gulf countries. In recent years, several hospitals under Muslim ownership have cropped up, where one sees more foreigners than Keralites. Authorities are searching for Nasser’s agents.
