5 arrested in India for selling blood illegally

Lucknow: Police arrested five people for illegally keeping more than a dozen people in captivity and selling their blood to private clinics in northern India to make money.

An official said the 15 victims freed on Sunday had been lured with promises of good jobs and then forcibly kept in a home in Gorakhpur, a town nearly 250 kilometres southeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

The five have been charged with illegal confinement of people and attempted murder. If convicted, they can be jailed up to 14 years.