Rs 50 lakh per transplant: Trafficking, organ theft case; Kerala health club under NIA lens

The NIA is probing the activities of a health club in Kerala operated by the accused persons involved in a human trafficking racket to harvest organs, the central agency has informed a court here.

The case pertains to alleged trafficking of people to Iran to harvest organs. While the donors have been from southern states, the recipients belong to various north Indian states, NIA said.

According to an affidavit filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking custody of the prime accused Madhu Jayakumar of Vattathipadam, Palarivattom, he and two other accused were collecting money through an account in the name of Stemma Club maintained with South Indian Bank.

Jayakumar, who had been staying in Iran, was arrested upon his arrival on November 7. A NIA court granted his custody to the anti-terror agency from November 12 to November 19.

In the affidavit seeking Jayakumar's custody, NIA has claimed that the accused persons trafficked people to Iran to harvest their organs after first inducing them with money and later threatening them, the court order said.

Trafficked persons were forced to give their kidneys in life threatening situation, the affidavit quoted by the court order said.

"Thereby, all the accused extorted huge sums of money and amassed illegal wealth in the form of money, crypto assets and landed properties, and thus they committed the offence pursuant to their criminal conspiracy," the NIA affidavit claimed.

The NIA affidavit said that Jayakumar was the kingpin of the international organ trade.

According to sources, Stemma Club was a health club run by Jayakumar in Kochi with the support of co-accused Sabith Nasar of Thrissur and Sajith Shyam of Kalamassery, who have also been arrested.

The account was used to transfer funds received from the alleged organ trade in Iran. The bank account is part of the properties of the accused that have been attached, NIA sources said.

Further, NIA had traced Rs 6 crore of transactions in a separate bank account operated by Sabith, they added.

On 18 May 2024 Sabith was intercepted by immigration officials at Kochi airport on suspicion of being part of an organised organ trafficking network. Later, a police probe led to the arrest of Sajith and Bellankonda Ram Prasad, a Vijayawada native.

The arrest of Jayakumar helped the NIA to unearth the operations of the network in Iran and details about the number of people who underwent organ transplant surgery abroad, officials said.

Meanwhile, sources in NIA stated that their investigation shows that organ donors were primarily from Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and the recipients were from various North Indian states. The network charged up to Rs 50 lakh per transplant.