Two of the persons, who are allegedly involved in the kidney racket in Dibrugarh district are on the run.
The Dibrugarh Police registered a case and started investigating the matter.
The duo, allegedly involved in the kidney racket, have been identified as Gautam Sonowal alias Girin of Naliapool and Bhaiti of Amolapatty of Dibrugarh.
A case No 213/2021 U/s 370 has been registered at Lahowal police station.
Dibrugarh superintendent of police Shwetank Mishra said, “Both the accused are absconding. We are trying our best to nab both the persons. We are investigating the case.”
Recently, an incident came to light in upper Assam Dibrugarh district where a tea garden worker sold his kidney in exchange of money.
Ramu Karmakar of Singlijan tea estate in Dibrugarh admitted that he had sold one of his kidney to a person for an amount of Rs 3.5 lakh in April.
Later it came to light that Gautam Sonowal alias Girin went to the house of Ramu Karmakar and convinced him to give the kidney to one Dr Jibeswar Deka in exchange of money for his kidney transplant.
Dr Jibeswar Deka is a patient, who needed a kidney donor. His family published an advertisement in one of the English dailies of Assam last year seeking a kidney donor.
Talking to this correspondent over the phone, Alpana Deka, daughter of Dr Jibeswar Deka said, “We are really embarrassed to see the news of my father, Dr Jibeswar Deka declaring him as an agent by some media houses. But it is not correct.”
“My father is a homeopathic doctor but unfortunately due to diabetic kidney disease, he had to survive completely on dialysis. The transplantation was done legally. The donor was Ramu Karmakar from Dibrugarh. But we never approached him directly.
“Gautam Sonowal from Dibrugarh was the person, who introduced us with the donor, Ramu Karmakar. We placed an advertisement seeking kidney in an English daily and Gautam Sonowal responded to the advertisement which was published in 2019.”
She said, “Everything was done legally and we have all the documents with us,” Alpana said.
“In some news channels and media, Jibeswar Deka was framed as an agent, which is totally false,” Alpana claimed.
“The kidney transplantation was done in a legal way at Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Science in Kolkata. For the expenses of the patient, we gave Rs 13 lakh to Gautam Sonowal,” she said.
All the documents are with Northeast Now.
The kidney racket has been thriving in tea garden areas and the racketeers are targeting the poor people to donate kidney.
After the matter came to light, the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), which is the largest body of tea garden workers, has constituted a high-level committee to investigate the matter.
The team will visit the tea gardens and try to unearth the illegal racket.