Barasat, Feb. 22: A couple who allegedly got people to sell their kidney for money were arrested from the northern fringes of Calcutta this evening.

A police team picked up Dilip Sen, 45, and his wife Putul, 39, from their house at Gitanjali Pally in Barasat from where two men and a woman have gone missing.

The Sens had themselves “donated” their kidneys, the police said.

They allegedly paid a meagre amount to the “donors” and kept a larger chunk of the money themselves.

“The couple used to encourage local youths and housewives to donate their kidney for money,” said Sugata Sen, the North 24-Parganas additional superintendent of police.

Shankar Das, Sukumar Das and Sheela Mondal are missing.

Sheela’s 15-year-old daughter said her mother hadn’t returned home since leaving for an aunt’s house two days ago. “Putul aunty” used to visit their house to advise her mother “to undergo a gall-bladder operation”, she added.

Shankar’s father Nirapada said he knew about his son’s recent hobnobbing with the Sens. “I got suspicious about the couple when he (Shankar) went missing a week ago,” said Nirapada, who has a van-renting business.

The police said a probe was on to trace the trio.

Dilip, who came to the neighbourhood a year ago, had started a money-lending business and a chit fund. But he suffered losses.

About a month back, the police said, Dilip came across a newspaper ad for a kidney donor. He got in touch with the advertiser, Gurdev Singh, a resident of Jamshedpur. “Dilip donated his right kidney and made his wife Putul agree to donate one of hers to a Chennai patient,” said an officer.

The CBI blew the lid off a kidney racket and arrested Delhi doctor Amit Kumar in Nepal earlier this month. Kumar and his brother were accused of misleading poor labourers into sham surgeries and stealing their kidneys.