Husband And In-Laws Sell Woman’s Kidney For Failure To Pay Dowry

What seems to be a new low, a 28-year-old woman’s kidney was removed by her husband as her family failed to meet their demand of Rs 2 lakh in dowry.

According to the complaint, Rita Sarkar said her husband of 12 years and her in-laws tortured her often for dowry and took advantage of her appendicitis to steal the kidney from her.

How it happened?

“Around two years ago, I began suffering from acute stomach ache. My husband took me to a private nursing home in Kolkata, where he and the medical staff told me that I would be fine after removing my inflamed appendix through surgery,” she said.

But her pain continued and even intensified, after the operation. “My husband warned me not to disclose the surgery in Kolkata to anyone. I begged him to take me to a doctor to treat the pain, but he ignored me.”

Rita was allegedly taken to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital by relatives from her parents’ side around three months ago and doctors found that her right kidney was missing.

Shocked, she sought a second opinion at a nursing home in Malda and learnt that one of her kidneys was just not there.

“I then understood why my husband implored me to keep quiet about the surgery. He sold my kidney because my family couldn’t meet his demand for dowry,” she alleged.

Rita then filed a complaint at Farakka police station in northern Bengal, the native place of her parents, against husband Biswajit Sarkar, a cloth merchant from Lalgola in Murshidabad district, his brother Shyamal and her mother-in-law, Bularani, who is on the run.

The husband and his brother were arrested on Monday, inspector Udayshankar Roy said.

Police arrest accused

The Logical Indian contacted Farakka police station and they confirmed that a case has been lodged and the accused has been arrested, although they did not reveal the name of the hospital where the surgery happened.

The accused were charged under Section 19 (punishment for commercial dealings in human organs) and Section 21 (offences by companies involved in any such act) of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act and IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 498 (detaining a married woman with criminal intent).

The men allegedly confessed that the kidney was sold to a businessman in Chhattisgarh. “Murshidabad police will raid the Kolkata hospital where the surgery was conducted.”

Police suspect a kidney smuggling gang is associated with the crime. “A special team has been formed to investigate,” the officer said.

The crime raises serious concerns regarding illegal organ mafia and many cases have come up in the past with “ The Hiranandani Case “ being very infamous where the accused forged papers to show that the donor unrelated to him was his wife and was selling her kidney in exchange for money.

According to doctors , at any given time around 3 lakhs to 3.5lakhs patients need transplants in India at any given time.

The country needs to have a national donor registry like many developed nations appealing citizens to donate organs so that the needy shall get the organs and the mafia is isolated. Even after having strong anti-dowry laws , domestic violence and heinous crimes against women are commonplace as the dowry demand often continues for years, especially in rural areas where a daughter is considered a liability which needs to be battled with educating women about their rights.