Uttar Pradesh: 10 arrested for allegedly selling fake blood platelets in Prayagraj

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday arrested 10 members of a gang which allegedly sold fake blood platelets in Prayagraj, NDTV reported.

According to the police, the gang duped patients by selling plasma as blood platelets. While both plasma and platelets are components of blood, they are used for different treatment purposes.

The police said that recovered 18 pouches of plasma, three pouches of alleged fake platelets, cash amounting to Rs 1.02 lakh, and 13 mobiles and three two-wheelers from those arrested, according to The Times of India.

The arrests were made a day after a hospital in the district was seized for putting a dengue patient on a sweet lime juice drip instead of platelets.

The arrested persons have been identified as Pradeep Kumar, Yogeshwar Singh, Pravin Patel, Vikas Patel, Abhishek Patel, Sarfaraj, Dilip Shukla, Sushil Pandey, Dilip Patel and Raghvendra Patel.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shailesh Pandey said that the gang was targeting dengue patients.

“Dengue has spread a lot in the recent days, shooting up the demand for platelets,” Pandey said, according to NDTV. “That’s what these men were taking advantage of that and defrauding mostly poor people.”

On Friday, the Global Hospital in the Jhalwa area of Prayagraj was sealed on the orders of Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak after authorities found that a dengue patient had been put on a drip of sweet lime juice.

The patient, Pradeep Pandey, was admitted to the hospital on October 17. Saurabh Mishra, the owner of the hospital, claimed that the platelets were brought from a different medical facility, and the patient suffered an adverse reaction after three units were administered.

“They brought five units of platelets from SRN Hospital,” Mishra had said. “After transfusion of three units, the patient had a reaction. So we stopped it.”

Pradeep Pandey was later taken to another hospital, where he died after his health worsened.