Organ sale racket : Woman lured with Rs 3 lakh to sell her kidney !

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, May 4:

A team from the Mangalabag police station in Cuttack in Odisha visited a high-profile private hospital in the city on Sunday night and interrogated its authorities and doctors about a kidney transplant case, after receiving complaints that a woman. lured by the promise of ‘big money’, had sold her kidney for a transplant operation in that hospital.

According to reports, Padmini, wife of Bhabagrahi Nayak of Nayak Sahi in Cuttack had got her kidney removed in a high profile private hospital here after she was promised Rs 3 lakh by a middleman involved in an organ sale racket.

Bhabagrahi, who is a reportedly a rickshaw puller and mentally unsound, was passing through acute financial crisis. His wife Padmini was allegedly told by an agent of a kidney sale racket that she could earn Rs 3 lakh if she agreed to donate a kidney.

The agent has been identified as Sharmistha of Nayak Sahi.

Sources say Padmini was ultimately duped and paid only Rs 50,000 after the operation.

It is a clear case of distress sale, said a senior police official. Bhabagrahi had taken loans from various sources and was badly in need of cash. Both husband and wife agreed to go for the sale of kidney because amount offered was too hefty for the poor couple to refuse.

Padmini, who is the mother of three children, as well as the man who had her kidney transplanted in his body are undergoing treatment at the same private hospital here, sources added.

The matter came to light after the victim’s brother-in-law Sarat lodged a complaint with the Mangalabag police a few days ago alleging she had been kidnapped and was untraceable.

A team from the Mangalabag police on Sunday nabbed Padmini’s husband Bhagirathi from Chandikhol in Jajpur district after which he reportedly confessed that his wife sold her kidney because that would fetch them Rs 3 lakh.

The police have launched a manhunt to nab the accused persons including Sharmistha, who is believed to have been the kingpin of a kidney racket, which has been active for the last few years.

The kidney sale racket targets poor families and lures them with promises of big money, police sources said.