He wants to sell his kidney to watch World Cup live

Ranchi, March 13 Tarun Sharma, a 23-year-old cricket addict from Jamshedpur, has threatened to kill himself if he is not allowed to sell his kidney so that he can travel to the West Indies to watch the World Cup matches.

Talking to IANS over telephone from Jamshedpur he said, 'I want to watch the World Cup. I have offered to sell one kidney to afford the trip. But no one has come forward to buy my kidney. It seems no one is suffering from kidney failure in India.'

'One day I will jump into the Mango River and end my life. If I cannot fulfil my long-cherished dream, why should I continue to live,' added a distraught Sharma. 'The world is very cruel, no one has come forward to help me fulfil my dream.'

Sharma works at a cloth merchant's shop and earns Rs.3,000 a month. He has to look after his parents as his elder brothers are married and live separately.

Asked why he wanted to watch this World Cup so badly, Sharma said: 'I have been a cricket fan since childhood. I wanted to watch the 2003 World Cup but couldn't afford to. West Indies is the toughest place where the World Cup is being played. I want to watch the exciting matches there.'

When told that kidney sale is banned in India and a kidney failure patient can get a kidney only through donation, Sharma said: 'What is the point of a law that prevents a man from fulfilling his dream?'

Asked to comment on Sharma's insistence on selling his kidney, Nitin Kulkarni, deputy commissioner of Jamshedpur, told IANS over the telephone: 'Under what law can we take action against the boy. We cannot act on newspaper reports. First let him get a client and manage a kidney sale. Then the district administration will take suitable action against him.'