Bhubaneswar, July 31: Crime branch officials today arrested four persons of a family and a middleman in connection with illegal kidney sale in Kandhamal district.

Earlier this year, one Kanhu Behera, 20, had agreed to donate one of his kidneys to a person in Berhampur for Rs 3.5 lakh. The kidney transplant took place in April in a hospital in Sri Lanka.

The accused have been identified as Mahendra Patnaik, 42, the recipient, his wife Sulata Patnaik, 38, elder brother Rajendra Patnaik, 56, and brother-in-law Kiran Kumar Patnaik, 37 - all from Ganjam district. The police also nabbed the middleman, Trinath Mohanty, 53, of Kandhamal town. However, Mahendra and Sulata were later granted bail on health grounds.

Additional director-general of crime branch B.K. Sharma said: "The recipient had first targeted Kanhu's father Baruna Behera, who is a daily wage earner, but later convinced Kanhu to donate his kidney, as Baruna's medical test reports were not in favour of the transplant.

"Kanhu was first taken to a Chennai-based private hospital for the transplantation, but the hospital authorities refused to operate on him. So, they took Kanhu to a hospital in Sri Lanka on March 19 and removed one of his kidneys and transplanted it. They returned back to Odisha on April 4," said Sharma.

However, to facilitate the transplantation, the Patnaiks prepared a forged voter identity card of Kanhu, showing him as Kanhu Patnaik - an adopted son of Mahendra's mother.

"The Patnaiks also made Kanhu's passport. This clearly shows a larger conspiracy behind the whole incident," said Sharma.

The Patnaiks assured Kanhu of Rs 3.5 lakh in exchange of his kidney and gave him Rs 25,000 in advance. Trinath allegedly took a sum of Rs 1 lakh to facilitate the deal.