shiba nanda basu

KOLKATA, 6 JUNE: A youth from Haryana wrote to the President of India seeking his approval to sell his organs to pay his wife who had allegedly filed a "false" dowry case against him. The matter is now under consideration of the National Human Rights Commission.

Mr Sunil Kumar (in sns photo), a resident of Fatehgarh in Haryana, married on 26 June in 2009. A year after his marriage, his wife brought dowry harassment charges against him and asked him to pay maintenance.

According to Sunil, his wife brought "false" charges against him for monetary gain. Though he collected proof against the false claims through RTI application, it was ignored by the local court, he alleged in his letter to the President.

Sunil wrote the letter in May this year to the President explaining his financial constraints and how he is overburdened with loans. He said in his letter that since he is unemployed and has nothing to sell to pay the maintenance to his wife, he would like to sell his organs.

"Please permit mercy killing (euthanasia) for me and sell my body parts and organs so that my wife receives her maintenance," he wrote. The matter is now before the National Human Rights Commission.

Talking to The Statesman from Haryana, Sunil said that after his wife filed "false" dowry case against him in 2010 she "continuously blackmailed me to pay her Rs 10 lakh to settle the matter." Expressing his poor financial condition he surrendered to the police on 9 August 2010 and spend two days in judicial custody.

"But that was the beginning of our suffering. The judge even after knowing my mother’s poor health sent her to judicial custody for four days. My mother who was discharged from hospital after a major tumour operation suffered paralysis after spending four days in Hawalati ward without medicine, food and proper care," Sunil said.

He said that in spite of bringing the facts with relevant proofs before the court, the judge did not consider them. "I even submitted evidence against the false charges collected through RTI Act. But even after her false claims without any evidence she got order in her favour," Sunil said. "But now I hope justice will be given as the matter is taken up by the NHRC. Otherwise, I don’t have any option other than selling my organs to pay my wife," he added.

Mr Amarty Talukdar of Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), said that extortion of money by abusing the dowry law is now rampant in India. "We are daily flooded with complaints from husbands who are falsely charged by their wives often to get financial advantage. The government should act now to stop its misuse," he added.