BJP MLA and RSS leader with illegal kidney traders; 20 people had sold kidneys, 5 touts including mother and son duo arrested

 From Bhupen Goswami

GUWAHATI : In Assam, the biggest ever racket of illegal kidney trade has been busted. Assam Police recently busted an international illegal human organ trade racket in Morigaon district and arrested some accused including a mother and son duo in the case. According to police reports, so far 5 touts including a pair of mother and son have been arrested among the accused in international organ trafficking. Two accused have absconded. The arrested woman and her accomplices were running an illegal kidney trade in South Dharamtul village of the district. He lured the poor villagers to pay Rs 4-5 lakh if he donated his kidneys to some sick people and organizations. The racket came to an end when some locals in the village visited the village on Saturday in search of kidney sellers and nabbed the woman and her son.

The villagers later handed them over to Pulipus. At least 20 people in the village are said to have sold their kidneys. The arrested woman agent has been identified as Lilimai Bodo, a resident of Guwahati. Pulipu’s has arrested Bodo, his son and his accomplice Ramen Medhi. Morigaon District Superintendent of Police (SP) Aparna Natarajan said: “A case (432/21) has been registered under sections of human trafficking. The woman is in police custody in Varta. Our investigation is on. We are trying to trace the local agents of the racket. It is believed that 20 people from the village have sold one kidney each. Recently, incidents of human kidney trade have been reported in Assam which has raised serious concernamong the people in the State. The Government has also come under pressure as it has become a need of the hour to expose the root cause of this illegal trade. Dharamtul village in Morigaon district, 85 kilometres east of Guwahati, is in the news for illegal kidney purchases.

The village defence party opened a kidney-selling gang poll when they saw a woman and her son signing some papers from a poor man in the village. He was going to sell his kidney for poor money. Police have registered a case in the case and arrested three persons. At least 12 people have written to the police in the village so far that they were selling kidneys for money. However, kidney sellers never received as much money as they were promised. A hospital in Kolkata is also involved in this gorkha business. In the same hospital, the kidney racket operator used to undergo kidney transplant. The hospital was already on the police radar. Sumant Das, 37, a resident of Dharamtul village, is a mistry by profession. He had no work for the past one year due to lockdown. Their economic condition had become miserable. Also there is a hole in his son’s heart.For which they needed money to treat.

Sumant Das decided to sell his kidney to the kidney gang for Rs 5 lakh. Sumant says that he sold one of his kidneys due to helplessness but he was given only Rs 1.5 lakh instead of Five lakh. Sumant is sick now. They say that no burden is borne by them. They cannot do heavy and hard work. Sumant’s wife said she had decided to sell kidneys due to her son’s illness and Mahajan’s debt. So that they could repay the loan and get their son treated, but that could not happen. The villagers who busted the gang claim that only a few people sold kidneys till four or five years ago, but due to lockdown, when people started not getting work. Then the business of selling kidneys picked up pace. People used to go to Kolkata and sell kidneys. We were aware of it but we were not ransacking it. It is not that all kidney sellers were forced. Some people have also sold kidneys to make money easily. Not only men but also the women of the village have been victims of this gang. Here, the police have widened the scope of their investigation. Police are now also looking for touts and kidney takers. Police believe that this interstate gorkha business is huge, which may involve many people. As soon as the arrest was heard, several people who had gone to Kolkata to sell kidneys fled.

A young man who returned said, “I get free rice but that’s not enough, so I decided to sell kidneys. I was also thinking whether the decision was right or wrong, but with my wife I ran away from Kolkata to the village. Interestingly, the people of Assam were shocked when the picture of Assam Chief Minister Hemant Vishwa Sharma’s BJP MLA and RSS leader along with illegal kidney traders has gone viral on social media.Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along with BJP leaders have been in turmoil in the state BJP after seeing pictures of a man arrested for indulging in human organ trade. Assam Police arrested 28-year-old Neetu Mani Das tonight. Drang SP Sushanta Biswa Sarma said that a police team arrested him from his residence at Dhekrigaon under Dalgaon police station in Drang district in connection with a case of illegal organ smuggling at Morigaon police station. Now pictures of Das along with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP MLA from Kamalpur Diganta Kalita and other BJP leaders have surfaced on social media. However, it is not immediately known whether he is a member of the ruling BJP or not. With the new organ trade being busted in Nagaon and Dibrugarh after Morigaon, the question is why the persons allegedly involved in the case are not being arrested immediately.Exposing the illegal trade, it came to light that a broker circle first took about 30 people to GMCH from where they issued an official letter for kidney transplant making fake identities. Dalal Circle took about 30 people from Morigaon to Narayan Hriday, named after Rabindranath Tagore in Kolkata, and promised a contract of Rs 5 to 6 lakh in lieu of illegal trade in human kidneys.

Similar cases of kidney sale came to light from other districts of Assam on Friday. Kidney vendors have been found in Nagaon and Dibrugarh today, where the root cause of selling this organ has once again been poor financial condition. One person named Pranjal Bordoloi has been charged behind the illegal organ trade in Nagaon and another, Plamban Borthakur, has been arrested in the Morigaon organ trade incident. Organ trafficking is probably one of the most secret forms of human trafficking that is going on in this world. A global shortage of organs has prompted the industry to rely on poor populations to be donors and wealthy population recipients. The goal of organ trafficking in the world is the general poor and vulnerable population who fall prey to this terrible trade. There are many incidents where people are placed under anesthesia and then they wake up to disappear their organs, or even kill for organs. Employers/brokers are generally people who can be from the same communities or ethnicity of a weaker population so that trust is to ease relationships. Brokers then make promises to organ suppliers like large sums of money or release them from debt and explain to them that this organ does not need to live