21,000 units of blood plasma seized; 3 held

Bharat Khanna

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 13

The police today seized more than 21,000 units of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) stored in a cooling van near Behman Diwana village of Bathinda district and arrested three persons, including two lab technicians.

One of the accused reportedly works at Adesh University, another at Max Hospital and the third owns a medical shop. Preliminary inquiry revealed that plasma was manufactured in Bhucho block.

The cooling van had been plying in the district for the last one week. Its driver revealed that small pick-up vans used to upload the packets in the van. “I was waiting for orders to move to Mumbai. The plasma packets are kept under 12 degree Celsius inside the van that consumes around 2.5 liters of diesel an hour,” he said.

Amit Duggal, District Drug Zonal Authority, Bathinda, said: “We will send the samples for testing in Noida labs. The plasma could not be of human beings as it is not available in such a large quantity. The average per month collection of the local blood bank is 60 to 70 units, but this van was carrying more than 21,000 units.”

Investigating officer Gurcharan Singh said: “We have nabbed Dilbagh Singh, a lab technician at Adesh University, Paramjit Singh of Max Hospital and Paramjit Singh Bibiwala of Bathinda, who runs a medical shop. They were planning to sell plasma to Reliance Life Sciences. A has been registered.”