Kidney racket running on Facebook, claims IPS officer

A senior IPS officer has alleged that members of a kidney racket are using social networking site Facebook to lure people to sell their vital organs. 

The 1992-batch Uttar Pradesh-cadre IPS officer, Amitabh Thakur who is posted as the Inspector General of Police (Civil Defence), has filed a complaint with the local police, alleging that a gang is contacting Facebook users to purchase their kidney. They are offering for Rs 3.5-4 lakh for a kidney, he said.

In his complaint, Thakur claimed that one of his friends from Noida had been contacted by a person on Facebook and was offered Rs 3.5 lakh for his renal organ. The IPS officer alleged the man making the offer also gave details of the bank account and other necessary formalities which would be needed to complete the transaction. "I also talked to that person on phone. He told me that I would get around Rs 3 lakh for my kidney. For this I will have to come to Pune and from there to Iran, the entire arrangement being made at his end," 45-year-old Thakur said in his complaint.

Demanding registration of an FIR, Thakur alleged that the person asked his age and told him that the money would be given in advance. "He also told me that since my age is slightly on upper hand (45), hence it will take around 10 days to get a receiver but if I had a young person in contact, his kidney can be sold immediately," Thakur alleged. 

The police officer said he had filed a complaint at Gomti Nagar police station seeking registration of an FIR as prima facie it seems to be an offence under sections of the Indian Penal Code and The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. "No FIR has, however, been registered so far," Thakur alleged.