Pandoli Village in Charotar region hit headlines in February 2016 for all the wrong reasons. The case of Amirmiya Malek was just the opening of a can of worms. He accused the hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, of “removing his kidney without consent and then paid Rs 2.3 lakh for it.” The village, however, seems to have made a name as being a hub of organ donors.
The “sellers” were identified either as heavily indebted farmers or daily and wagers. The operation was usually performed in Delhi, Chennai and Sri Lanka. The thriving organ sale market led the police to arrest six people: Mukul Chaudhri from Valod, Sheralikhan Pathan from Ahmedabad, Rafiq Vohra from Pandoli, Javedkhan Daudkhan from Mumbai and the mastermind Santosh Alias Amit Raut an Ayurvedic practitioner from Gurugram.
The ongoings in the underbelly seems to have surfaced again. This time, at the sessions court in Petlad, the prosecution presented 39 witnesses and 10 victims. “The sellers seem to have agreed for money in return. One Ashok Gohel sold his kidney to get back his wife’s jewellery that they sold to pay for his mother’s treatment. Second, one Hiten Rawal sold his kidney to pay for his father’s cancer treatment. However, some sellers have turned hostile and now demand more money. In absence of any clear law, this business is anybody’s game now,” shared a villager in Pandoli village, hinting at the international demand and clear nexus that is propelling the illegal organ sale in the state.
