Kathmandu, Jul 29 (PTI) Five Nepali nationals have been arrested for allegedly coercing gullible villagers to sell their kidneys, which they used to smuggle into India, police said today.

Chitwan district police arrested the accused from Chitwan, Kathmandu and Rasuwa districts, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Prabhu Prasad Dhakal said.

They used to target gullible villagers and take them in confidence with fake promises before extracting their kidneys and sending it to various hospitals in India, he said.

"They used to charge a commission of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for finding people willing to sell their kidney in exchange of monetary gains and establishing their contact with smugglers," Dhakal said.

Earlier, District Police Office Chitwan had formed a seven-member team of Medical Response Team (MRT) to look crimes related to health.

Following which this racket was busted.

They will be charged under the Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act, 2007, the police said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)