Blood suppliers and donors arrested on Thursday from Makhaniya Kuan in Patna. Telegraph picture

Patna, April 1: The illegal trade of selling and buying “bad” blood is spread far and wide across the state, Patna police said today.

Not only illegal and unregistered blood banks but also big hospitals in the state capital and across the state buy blood, said a police officer.

A day after Patna police raided three blood banks, the police claimed it was not just small and private nursing homes that indulged in this illegal trade but also big hospitals. The Telegraph, in its April 1 issue, reported how the police, acting on a letter received from Bihar State AIDS Control Society, conducted raids in three illegal blood banks in Patna — Suryapali Clinic located at Ashok Rajpath area under Pirbhore police station and two makeshift blood banks operating from homes at Makhaniya Kuan. Residences of Mohammed Hafiz and Paras Nath Paswan at the Makhaniya Kuan area — which had been converted into illegal blood banks were also raided. Eight persons were arrested and forwarded to jail.

A police officer said in the course of preliminary interrogations, the arrested men had revealed the names of some nursing homes like Kumar Nursing Home, Khan Nursing Home and Aman Nursing Home at Makhaniya Kuan area and Ashirwad Nursing Home and National Nursing Home in Kankerbagh, which bought the illegal blood for Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 per unit.

A police officer said they would soon appeal to take them into remand and interrogate them.

Patna City superintendent of police (SP) Shivdeep Lande told The Telegraph today that the police might have stumbled upon a large racket.

“We believe that many more people are involved in this. Just nursing homes do not need such huge quantities of blood. These men, in the trade for years, also supply blood to other places. We are sure that even big hospitals buy blood from them. Hospitals outside Patna, or even outside the state, could be involved,” said Lande.

On being asked if the police raids on only three unregistered blood banks in the city would make other such establishments wary, the SP said the raids were conducted after a tip-off.

“We had a tip-off about these blood banks. They were the biggest institution operating in Patna. We are investigating the matter now. There will be raids at other places as well. It will be a continuous process,” said Lande.