Investigative journalist Scott Carney has been working for the last half a year or so on a story about grave robbers in Calcutta who steal skeletons and sell them to medical supply companies in the US and Europe.
"To research the story I combed the state of West Bengal and saw huge piles of police-confiscated bones," he explains. "I even spoke to some of the people who deflesh human bodies for a living."
The story is now out in Wired, and NPR News still more on Scott's blog.
Images here (shot by Scott): (left): A police officer in Burdwan, West Bengal, displays a cache of skulls confiscated from a bone factory run by Mukti Biswas on the outskirts of Kolkata. (right top): A bag of femurs recovered by West Bengal police. (right bottom): The gated entrance to Young Brothers in Kolkata. The company sells human remains at wholesale prices.
