Humanity hung its head in shame when media reported shocking revelations of silent serial kidnappings of children and youth, mostly girls, allegedly for twin purposes of sexual exploitation and organ trafficking, and then killing them and dumping their bodies/limbs in gully bags. This is no horror fiction nor is it a story from a riot-torn area. Nor is this resounding tale of horror is from the Chambal valley. It is from the very outskirts of our national capital, from Nithari in the Noida district of Uttar Pradesh, the north Indian State which had recently gone to infamy with the mysterious murder of Meerut University lecturer Kavita Rani, who is said to have had enjoyed the ‘blessings’ of various top politicians including ministers.
This multiple crime has added a new leaf to the criminalisation of politics. Kidnappings of innocent, gullible girls and then their release or murder following their physical assault have been reported earlier also. But this organised crime – spread over in the various States or perhaps at the international level – of coaxing children by offering toffees/candies and of ensnaring young girls by calling them for interviews or by employing various novel means, and then physically exploiting them and/or surgically removing their vital organs before killing them is entirely a new phenomenon.
Among the dug-up limbs, media reports confirm, there are some with missing knee-caps, the demand of which is said to be very high in international market. And some limbs are without torsos – strengthening the possibility of surgical removal of their kidneys, livers, bones and perhaps all other vital organs. In the secluded lane leading to the slum area of Nithari, the chief suspect Moninder Singh has his close-door neighbour, Dr. Naveen Chowdhury. And the houses of the two are allegedly ‘inter-connected’ from beneath the surface of the floor. If true, the possibility of an organised multiple crime at an unspeakably large scale, with the patronage of some police officials and politicians, is strengthened. Only a deep probe can come up with the truth.
It is impossible that only two persons – the two suspects: Moninder Singh and his servant Surinder Kohli alias Satish – would have been running this ‘business’ against humanity. The investigating teams need to cover all possible persons, however high in office, in order to bring all the culprits to book. It is however heartening to note that the Mulayam Singh administration, which initially rejected the idea of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case, has now issued orders to this effect, though after the intervention of the Governor of Uttar Pradesh T.V. Rajeswar.
The January 9 report datelined Patna of arrest of another serial killer Subodhan Kumar who had been eluding the police for 11 long years sends adding shivers to our spine in this January cold. This Patna killer has reportedly a gang of about 30, including a dismissed police official.
The questions about the whereabouts of the missing children haunting the minds of the people whose near and dear ones went missing and are now believed to have been killed in the ‘killing factory’ of Moninder Singh, remain intact and need to be answered.
But the billion-dollar questions are: Why few of our fellow human beings – we shudder to call them ‘fellow’ and ‘human’ – stoop down to the level of beasts? Why the law and order machinery fails to keep an eye on such gruesome crimes? And why, more often than not, police officials and politicians are found having hand in glove with the perpetrators of such crimes?
The answer to these questions is simple: They consider their life on earth to be the only life, and think that they should eat, drink and be merry in this short life as one day or the other they will have to die and then the story will come to a total end. The fact is otherwise: there will be a Day of Judgement when each and every person will be resurrected and made to give an account of his deeds on earth. It is this sense of accountability that can alone ensure peace, justice and prosperity here in this life as well as in the hereafter. The time people believed in the Day of Judgement and ensured a crime-free society.