Filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan alleges ‘organ mafia’s’ involvement in kin’s death

According to Sanal, bruises were found on the arms, neck and under the eyes of the deceased’s body.
Sanalkumar Sasidharan
Sanalkumar Sasidharan
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Kerala filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan alleged foul play over the death of his relative, Sandhya, a 40 year-old resident of Thiruvananthapuram. According to multiple Facebook posts written by the filmmaker on the issue, there were alleged attempts from the part of local police to rush the funeral without conducting a post-mortem. Sanal also said that Sandhya, who had recovered from COVID-19, was healthy before her sudden demise on November 7.

The deceased is the filmmaker’s cousin. Sanal Kumar says that it has now surfaced that Sandhya had in 2018 allegedly donated a portion of her liver of her own will, but without the knowledge of other family members. He says only Sandhya’s daughter knew about this and was told by her mother to keep it a secret. However, some incidents following her death raised the family’s suspicion that the organ transplant ‘mafia’ was involved, Sanal Kumar said.

According to Sanal, bruises were found on the arms, neck and under the eyes of the deceased. The body was kept in the mortuary of Neyyattinkara Taluk Hospital after death. Alleging lapses by the police, he said this was not initially noted by the officials of Neyyattinkara police station, even when he and Sandhya’s brother urged them. He added it was only after the intervention of the Sub Inspector that the details about the bruise marks were noted.

He further alleged that police officers wrongly informed the family that the post-mortem of Sandhya was held.  Sanal said that following this the family tried to conduct the funeral as they were informed that the post-mortem was done, but since some documents weren't yet received from the hospital, the local body officials delayed the cremation of the deceased.

“It is then, by evening (November 11), I learned from a media person that the post-mortem was not done and there are chances that it will be held today morning (November 12),” Sanal wrote.

It should be inquired if this is true, Sanal wrote in a complaint to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and State Police Chief. “If this is true, then the mystery around her death are again increasing. We feel there was an attempt to cremate the body without holding a post-mortem,” he wrote, adding that her COVID-19 test should be done again in Alappuzha’s National Institute of Virology (NIV).

The filmmaker has alleged that the incident has to be inquired in the wake of recent reports about the organ ‘mafia; in the state. After he filed the complaint, the funeral has reportedly been postponed and samples have been sent to Alappuzha NIV.

 

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