The moving tale of a kidney donor, a woman from Katihar in Bihar, came to the fore when police recently busted a kidney racket in Mukundapur area.
Karuna Roy Chowdhury’s relatives said that her son Aniruddha (who has been arrested earlier) wanted to become an engineer. After a few failed attempts, he managed a low rank and got admitted to a private college.
“It was a tough ask for the family that comes from a very humble background. When she found it difficult to manage her son’s semester fees, she decided to sell her kidney for Rs. 6 lakh,” said a relative.
An investigator, however, confirmed that the donor had to be arrested as she had knowingly used forged documents. “We will send a team to Katihar and Jalpaiguri to ascertain the facts,” said an officer.
The police though added that Roy Chowdhury’s family never saw the amount. According to south suburban police, the money that reached the donor was minuscule compared to what the agent got. “In this case, the recipient’s family has claimed to have paid Rs. 3 lakh in advance in the Rs. 6-lakh deal. Yet, the donor’s son has claimed that he has been merely paid Rs. 20,000.
Purba Jadavpur police have also arrested two more persons — Swapan Mullick (36) and Riton Roy (31) — for being allegedly involved in the racket. This takes the total number of arrests to six. The cops said Mullick, a resident of Balagarh in Hooghly, is a pathology centre employee and a mediator. Roy is the manager of Debi Guesthouse in Mukundupur. Both had played crucial roles in arranging forged documents for the surgery at RN Tagore Hospital.
“We have found some inter-state links which we are probing. Each member of the gang completed a specific job in the chain. We are therefore concentrating on each suspect. More arrests are likely,” said an officer.
Purba Jadavpur police busted the kidney racket operating from North Bengal on Friday after RN Tagore Hospital authorities contacted police saying they were not satisfied with the papers submitted for a kidney transplant surgery.
