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Bengal teacher, family arrested for mother’s eye donation released on bail
Amir Chand Sheikh and four of his family members spent three days in judicial custody after neighbours accused them of illegal organ trading
A Krishnanagar-based school teacher and social worker, arrested on Monday for donating his deceased mother’s eyes, was released on bail along with his family by a Nadia district court on Thursday.
Amir Chand Sheikh and four of his family members spent three days in judicial custody after neighbours accused them of illegal organ trading.
Sheikh’s lawyer, Arupratan Chatterjee, told reporters that the Krishnanagar court ordered the release of Sheikh, his brother, their wives, and his sister on bail bonds of ₹2,000 each.
“Neither police nor the complainants (who had accused Sheikh of organ trafficking) opposed the bail,” Chatterjee said.
The case struck a particularly sensitive nerve in West Bengal, a state where a decades-long movement led by Marxist politicians encouraged people to donate their bodies to science.
Rights groups produced a document signed by Sheikh’s mother, Rabiya Bibi Sheikh, at an awareness camp in October 2024, to pledge her corneas. Despite the corneas being successfully transplanted at the state-run Berhampore Medical College, the police went ahead to arrest the family following a neighbour’s complaint that claimed they sold her eyes.
“What was our crime?” Sheikh asked after his release from a local correctional centre on Thursday. “I showed the police my mother’s death certificate and the pledge certificate issued by (NGO who campaigns for organ donation) Ganadarpan but they still arrested us,” Sheikh said.
Ranjit Sur, general secretary, Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) said the corneas were successfully transplanted at the Berhampore Medical College and Hospital in the adjacent Murshidabad district.
“The hospital acknowledged the family’s contribution in writing and yet they spent three days in judicial custody,” he said.
For three days, APDR has held demonstrations in Krishnanagar and Kolkata over the arrests.
Sheikh’s father-in-law Abdur Rezzak Mondal said he also lodged police complaints against nine people who led a mob to Sheikh’s home and accused him of selling not only his mother’s eyes but kidneys as well.
“But the police took no action on my complaint. We demand exemplary punishment for these people,” Mondal said
Krishnanagar-based social worker Indranil Chatterjee, who also led a campaign demanding Sheikh’s release, said action should be taken against those who framed the teacher. “We will move the Calcutta high court if the district police doesn’t take action against those who framed a good soul,” Indranil said.
