Victims-turned-brokers stump investigators

Several women who sold their kidneys have become brokers in the illegal trade

CHENNAI: When Lakshmi (30), a fisherwoman of Tsunami Nagar near Chennai died last year, members of a racket that trades in human kidneys were worried. Not just because the cause of death was rumoured to be complications she developed after selling her kidney in mid-2004.

Saraswathy was a broker in the racket which targeted the 1745 families displaced by tsunami and housed in temporary shelters at Ernavur near Chennai.

Even as the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday transferred the investigation into the racket (reported by DNA on Jan 15) to the Crime Branch-Central Investigation Department (CB-CID) of the state police, sleuths are finding it tricky with the emergence of several ‘victims-turned-kidney brokers’ in the scene. These people also ensure that no formal complaint is filed with the police.

“Primary investigations have found that the trade was prevalent in Chennai slums much before the tsunami. Many women who sold their kidneys earlier have become campaigners and brokers, some inadvertently and some others actively. They are offenders, but also victims of poverty. That makes their prosecution difficult on humanitarian grounds,” a policeman told DNA.

“Interactions with a few women of Tsunami Nagar, who sold their kidneys in the last two years, revealed that many of them would warn other prospective ‘donors’ only on getting a fair deal. None of the donors have given their real identities, all the victims have been operated upon under false names,” Saran said.

The brokers have gone underground. Women of Tsunami Nagar spoke of a man called Prakash who frequented the place. “Prakash, whom the hospital people called Karuppiah, struck the deal with a few women immediately after tsunami. Later, he stopped coming and the donors were discreetly spreading the message of money for kidney,” said Mariaselvam, a local leader of Tsunami Nagar fishermen.