Story highlights Police arrest five in connection with a kidney-smuggling ring

Raids in other Indian cities as Delhi police swoop for ringleader

New Delhi (CNN) Police in New Delhi have made a number of arrests in connection with a suspected organ harvesting scheme operating out of one of the city's most prestigious private hospitals.

Five people remain in police custody after being arrested for illegally trading human kidneys, Mandeep Randhawa, Deputy Commissioner of Police of Southeast Delhi, told CNN.

Police allege that the five suspects were part of an illegal trafficking ring that lured poor people to give up their kidneys for a small fee, while they sold the organs at a huge mark-up on the black market.

The kidney donors were recruited from all over India, including the provinces of West Bengal, Kanpur, Delhi and Chennai. They were then brought to a private hospital in Delhi for the procedures, according to the police.

The scam also involved falsified documents given to poor patients by a gang at the city's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital Delhi, according to Randhawa.

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