One, two, three of social deceptions
One: Milton Samaddar was nabbed by Rab for allegedly running a clandestine organ harvesting and human trafficking racket under the guise of his philanthropic organisation, Child and Old Age Care.
Two: An author of children's thrillers and horror stories, Tipu Kibria, was arrested for the second time allegedly for possessing and uploading pornographic images of underage street children.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Three: The wife of former Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB) chairman Ali Akbar Khan was arrested allegedly for procuring fake academic certificates with the help of a system analyst at BTEB.
Just as the human body relies on its organs to function properly, so too does a nation depend on the integrity and efficacy of its institutions to thrive. Imagine that our collective body politic suffers from a damaged kidney, unable to filter out the pollutants of corruption, deception, and perversion that threaten to poison our societal bloodstream. How do we protect ourselves from the toxicity that pervades different organs of our society? Where can we look for a cure? Should we sign up for a surgical intervention, seek a replacement in the illicit market, or advocate for a healthy lifestyle to address these needs before they escalate? The situation gets murky when monsters hide behind great names like the English epic poet Milton, the rebel leader from Mysore Tipu Sultan, or Mughal Emperor Akbar. Great names are compromised through great deceptions.
Let's begin with "one," Milton Samaddar. He turned out to be a social media celebrity with 1.6 crore followers for his charitable shelter for children and the elderly. After the Covid pandemic exposed our species' vulnerabilities, a renewed urge to support our fellow beings emerged. Inspired by his wife's nursing profession, Milton, a smart entrepreneur, started a shelter and appealed for donations. Money kept pouring in. He started inflating the number of people under his care. Abruptly, the number of individuals under his care began to either die or vanish. The mosque nearby, where the deceased were taken for the ritual bath, noticed cuts on the bodies. The existence of a makeshift operation theatre inside a nursing home sparked the idea of organ harvesting.
For those of us who viewed the horror of organ trafficking and illicit operations as dystopian sci-fi plots such as that of The Island, the harsh light of reality suddenly pierced through the veil of complacency, jolting us awake to the horrifying truth lurking in the shadows of our society. Milton has supposedly scripted the satanic racket that extracts organs from live human bodies, buries the victims secretly under the cover of night, and forges death certificates to conceal its heinous deeds. Within the confines of Milton's shelter home, a two-tier deception unfolds. On one level, he promises shelter and care to the visibly abandoned or marginalised residents, only to ensnare them in a web of exploitation. A lucrative black market trade turns their vulnerability into a commodity, turning their bodies into vessels for organ harvesting. On another level, social media platforms with paid boosts propagate a polished veneer of charity, shielding the public from the atrocities occurring behind closed doors.
Ironically, social media, often dismissed as a mere conduit for frivolous entertainment and superficial connections, alerted the police. The whispers of citizen journalists revealed the truth, forcing authorities to confront the grim realities.
It's a nightmare scenario straight out of a thriller. I don't know whether Tipu, number "two," wrote any such thrillers while working for the popular young adult magazine Rahasya Patrika. He spent seven years in prison for child pornography. Now he is at it again, say police. He entices street children to participate in his nude photo shoots for a small fee, then proceeds to sell the captured images for a substantial sum of money. The renowned Tipu Sultan launched rockets filled with swords, showering the British colonisers with destruction. The Tipu here sends images to the cloud for dissemination to perverts across the world.
Akbar, the "third," gives love a bad name by buying his wife a fake certificate. His associate's arrest for possessing hundreds of forged academic certificates brought his name to light. One such certificate belongs to the board chairman. Maybe he felt that gifting a certificate to his wife would teach her a lesson or two. We don't know what the motivations are, but from the associate's confessions, it is clear that there is a common practice of managing officials from various probing and monitoring agencies. The failure to seal a negotiation in dollars exposed the issue of forged certificates.
Frustration simmers beneath the social surface. The frustration stems not only from the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, but also from the systemic failures that allowed them to flourish unchecked. It's a frustration born of the realisation that our institutions, meant to safeguard the welfare of society, have become complicit in perpetuating the very injustices they were designed to prevent. The rotten system requires dialysis because corruption runs deep, permeating every layer of society. From complicit officials turning a blind eye to the exploitation of the vulnerable to apathetic bystanders content to remain passive observers—the roots of this insidious malaise are far-reaching and entrenched.
Occasional actions of whistleblowers or police sometimes give us hope. But hope alone is not enough. It must be coupled with more preventive actions. We don't want homeless children and abandoned elderly people sleeping in the streets who can be preyed upon. We need action against the predators who prey on these vulnerable beings. We need actions to hold the institutions accountable. We need social campaigns to foster a culture of vigilance and empathy, where the rights and dignity of every individual are respected and upheld. The raids of exploitation have turned trust into a casualty. To restore trust, there has to be a concerted effort by government agencies, reputable NGOs, and grassroots organisations that would filter out the pollutants of corruption, deception, and perversion that threaten to poison our societal bloodstream.
Dr Shamsad Mortuza is a professor of English at Dhaka University.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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