Bangalore : A police team on Saturday arrested seven persons for running a kidney transplantation racket, allegedly involving government officials and major hospitals in Bangalore.

Among those arrested are revenue inspector Ranjan; contract labourer in the Food and Civil Supplies Office, Magadi, C.D. Shrikanth; and five others including an agent, police said.

Ramanagara Superintendent of Police Anupam Agarwal on Saturday said that the probe team, set up to bust the racket, has exposed a kidney sale network thriving in and around Bangalore.

The initial breakthrough came on December 31, 2012, with the arrest of two persons who were allegedly engaged in the task of luring poor people to donate kidney for monetary benefit.

Documents pertaining to the transplantation of kidney and duplicate voter identity cards were seized from them, he said.

Mr. Agarwal said their interrogation led to the arrest of Shrikanth who was allegedly behind creating and providing fake documents for the kidney transplantation.

A computer, scanner, hard disk which were used to create duplicate voter ID were also seized, he added.

Two more persons were also arrested on the same day.

Mr. Agarwal said the racket involved getting the kidney transplantation done with the help of fake documents.

They collect between Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh from the recipient, out of which only 10 to 20 per cent is given to the donor and rest was distributed among agents, Mr. Agarwal said, adding, about 25 illegal kidney transplantations are suspected to have been done.

Bangalore North taluk Revenue Inspector Ranjan and an agent Ananth were also arrested subsequently during investigation, Mr. Agarwal said.

Investigation regarding the alleged involvement of authorities from various hospitals is on, he said.