Kidney to pay off debt: Cops arrest another money lender

Palanpur: Cops have arrested another money lender in connection to the shocking case of Khoda village wherein a teacher was forced to sell his kidney to pay off his debt.
A day after the police arrested money lender Harsh Bhati, it arrested another money lender Deva Rabari, a native of Tharad taluka’s Morila village, on Monday.
Both Bhati and Rabari have been booked under various sections of the Gujarat Money Lenders Act 2011 for allegedly harassing teacher Ramji Purohit who sold off his kidney for Rs 15 lakh.
According to police, Purohit had borrowed Rs 3 lakh from Bhati, who is also a teacher hoping that he would be charged affordable interest rate.
But Bhati allegedly started demanding higher interest rate. In order to pay off his interest amount, Purohit had approached Rabari from whom he borrowed Rs 4 lakh on higher rate of interest.
As pressure mounted to pay off his debt, Purohit had begun hunting for kidney buyers on his cell phone. His search ended when a kidney buyer from Sri Lanka agreed to pay him Rs 15 lakh for his kidney which was extracted through an operation in January 2015.
Even after he paid off his debt, the money lenders continued making fresh demands.
The cops have registered a complaint against four accused of which two are yet to be arrested. “The two other accused were not involved in money lending but they had thrashed and threatened the teacher. They have been booked under section 323 and 506 (b) of the Indian Penal Code and will be arrested soon,” said police inspector J B Chaudhary.