Kidney traders slip through flimsy investigations

Members of an organised crime syndicate are luring poor and lesser educated people with promises of large sums of money and lucrative jobs, then removing their kidneys. Cases are being filed in such cases, but the leaders of these crime rings are not brought to justice due to the flimsy investigations of the police.

A review was conducted of three cases filed over the last two and a half years against members of the crime syndicate involved in kidney trade in Dhaka city. It was seen that the police submitted chargesheets in two cases after completing investigations. Another case is still under investigation. In all these incidents, the victim either had his kidney removed after being taken to India or someone or the other of the crime wing was located in India.

A young man, Robin Khan, was recently lured to India with promises of a well-paid job, and then his kidney was forcefully removed. Robin, who use to work at a tailor shop in Netrakona, returned to the country on 11 May and filed a case at the Dhanmondi police station against 11 persons. The Dhanmondi police later arrested four of them. Robin Khan told Prothom Alo, "An acquaintance Raju and a few others are involved in this ring. They took me to India and forced me to sell a kidney. They paid me Tk 300,000 and send me back to the country. I am unwell."

Investigations are being carried out in the case lodged by Robin. But the police could not identify all the accused in the two cases where the police have submitted chargesheets to the court. It was recommended that some of the accused be acquitted from charges as their full name and addresses are not available. All these accused are now in India, according to the case.

RAB arrested five persons from Bhatara in the capital two years ago for tempting low-income people to sell their kidneys. Later RAB filed a case in this regarding under the Human Organ Transplant Act 1999. After conducting investigations for over a year, the police finally submitted chargesheets against the five accused in court.

According to the case report, the accused Shahidul Islam and the others would offer money to lesser educated people around the country, luring them to sell their kidneys. Later they would sell these kidneys for exorbitant sums of money to wealthy kidney patients. They even used the Facebook to lure people into selling their kidneys. One of the main members of this syndicate, Russel, is now in India. A review of the chargesheets shows that even though the investigations ran for over one year, the police were unable to find Russel's full name and address.

An appeal has been made to acquit him from the case. The investigation report also has no mention of when this ring began operating and from how many people had they collected kidneys. There is no specific information either about to whom the kidneys were sold. The case is now at the stage when the charges are being formed.

When asked about the matter, the investigating office, sub-inspector (SI) of Bhatara police station Khalilur Rahman told Prothom Alo that he had been the third investigating office in the case. He said he had submitted the report to the court on the basis the case documents.

When weaknesses in investigation were pointed out to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's media and publicity wing deputy commissioner Md Faruk Hossain, he said if there are weaknesses in the investigation, the matter will be brought to the attention of the higher authorities and action taken accordingly.

Investigations into another case filed by RAB over kidney trading last year is in the same state. The case states that two of the seven accused, Nafi Ahmed and Taif Hossain, reside in India and are involved with the kidney trading ring. After 9 months of investigation, the chargesheet submitted on 18 April by the Bhatara police station SI Palak Kumar Das Majumdar, also recommends that those two be acquitted. It was said that though those two were involved in the kidney trading ring, it had not been possible to find their full names and addresses.

Expert in criminal offence matters, lawyer Ehsanul Haque Samaji told Prothom Alo, such kidney trading is an inter-state crime. A massive syndicate is involved in collecting and transplanting kidneys. If the investigations are flimsy, it will not be possible to ensure punishment for the criminals. If their punishment is to be ensured, every member the syndicate must be identified and specific charges with due evidence must be placed in court.