Lucknow, Aug 23 - Initial investigations by the police in the adulterated blood trading racket in Lucknow, busted Saturday, has revealed the involvement of many hospitals and blood banks, police said Sunday.

Police Saturday arrested six people from a hideout in Thakurganj area of the state capital and recovered nearly 100 units of blood from them.

According to Additional Superintendent of Police Vinay Chandra, the gang used to buy blood from professional donors like drug addicts, rickshaw pullers, and beggars and mixed saline water in it to make three units from one unit of blood. This was sold at Rs.1,000-1,500 per unit.

'Besides blood, we also recovered pouches of plasma from their hideout where they used to collect blood. It is impossible for an untrained person to extract plasma from blood and the involvement of some doctors and pathologists has also come to light,' Chandra added.

Besides the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), the name of some high profile private hospitals has also come to light for their alleged involvement in the blood racket.

'Earlier, they used to buy empty blood bank wrappers from the CSMMU at a cost of Rs. 100 per piece. A few months ago, they started getting the wrappers printed in a printing press in Basti district. Besides private hospitals, the name of some private blood banks has also come to light and more arrests are expected soon,' Chandra told IANS.