Lucknow, March 19 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh Police have launched a manhunt for the mastermind behind an organised blood donation racket carried out by luring poor labourers into donating blood in lieu of money. While five people were arrested Sunday from Gorakhpur, about 200 km east of Lucknow, the police are on a lookout for at least four more, alleged to be closely involved in the running of the racket.

The Gorakhpur police have invoked the stringent Gangsters Act against the culprits. The police top brass at the state headquarter here do not rule out the possibility of a similar racket in other parts of the state as well.

“We have sought intelligence inputs from several other districts where our suspicion has been aroused,” Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal said Wednesday.

“The racket got exposed on account of haggling over the payment to be made towards the blood taken from the lured donors,” Gorakhpur Senior Superintendent of Police Piyush Mordia told IANS.

According to him, “On receiving a tip-off about a scuffle in Chorpurwa slum on the outskirts of the city, we sent a team to investigate. We discovered how innocent poor labourers were being cheated in the name of blood donation.”

He said: “Since some of the victims complained that they had also been kept under illegal confinement, we have booked the five arrested for that offence too. Besides they have been accused of violating the Drug and Cosmetics Act and also charged for cheating.”

Officials were convinced that there was some willingness on the part of the victims too. “Logically it is not possible to take someone’s blood by force unless the persons was drugged. Everyone has confessed their blood was taken while they were conscious,” said a local cop involved in the investigations.

The arrested people were engaged as small time technicians in local pathology laboratories, whose owners have not been arrested by the police so far.

“They are all absconding from the day these technicians were arrested,” the SSP said.

“Each of the 17 victims complained that as against an assurance of Rs.300 per unit of blood, they were paid only Rs.50 while they were told that the remaining amount would be deposited in their accounts,” Mordia said.

“Trouble was sparked off when many of these fellows realised that they were being duped,” he added.

The police have named Pappu Yadav and Jayant Sarkar as the key suspects, who were still at large.

“Pappu Yadav owns the ramshackle house where the victims were lodged while Sarkar was described as their procurer who did all the networking with different nursing homes and blood banks,” the police officer said.