UP Police arrest 10 people for selling bogus platelets.

On Friday, the Uttar Pradesh Police detained 10 members of a gang, two days after a dengue patient in Prayagraj died after receiving mosambi (sweet lemon) juice instead of plasma. According to the authorities, the alleged offenders obtained plasma from various blood banks before selling bogus platelets to patients.

The police claimed that the arrests were made as a result of a tip-off and added that the alleged gang members’ possessions included fake platelet pouches that had been found.

Ten members of a group accused of peddling bogus platelets to patients were reportedly detained in Prayagraj, said the senior superintendent of police Shailesh Kumar Pandey. ‘The accused obtained plasma from blood banks, packaged it, and then marketed the plasma as platelets’ he said.

Additionally, Pander revealed that close to 12 people were recently detained for allegedly providing blood illegally.

‘During the course of interrogation, it has not been proven whether there was a fruit juice in the pouch or something else,’ Pandey stated in reference to the death of a dengue patient and the shutting of a private hospital after fruit juice was purportedly transfused to the deceased.

‘These people market platelets made of plasma. A sample is being submitted to a lab, and only after an examination will the true picture become clear,’ said the SP.

Authorities shut down the facility on Thursday for allegedly giving a patient who later passed away mosambhi juice instead of blood platelets. Pradeep Pandey, the deceased, was sent to another hospital, where he later passed away.

Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, issued an order to close the hospital shortly after the incident was photographed and turned into viral videos. However, sources imply that no FIR has reportedly been filed at a neighbourhood police station.

The hospital board, on the other hand, asserted that the patient experienced a response following the transfusion of three units to him. They added that the platelets had come from a separate hospital.