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Search for work cost man a kidney
Indian labourer lured by promise of job was threatened with death after MDs operated
Feb 10, 2008 04:30 AM
Sonya Fatah
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
GHAZIABAD, IndiaThe white sedan stopped in front of Shakeel Ahmed as he stood on the side of the main highway to Delhi. When its occupant offered him a job, he couldn't have been happier.
Little did he know that he was setting off on a harrowing eight-day journey that would end with the forcible removal of one of his kidneys.
When police raided the headquarters of an illegal kidney transplant ring in a Delhi suburb on Jan. 24, they rescued Ahmed and three other men who had been held against their will and operated upon.
It's not clear if Amit Kumar, the alleged kidney-transplant kingpin arrested in Nepal and now deported to India, was one of the doctors who operated on Ahmed.
When 28-year-old Ahmed left his village on Jan. 16, he took his usual position along the highway, hoping to nab a job from the manager of a construction site who might be trolling for cheap, migrant labourers.
So when the white sedan stopped, Ahmed thought himself lucky.
"There were two men inside the car, and they asked me if I was interested in a whitewashing job. They were offering 150 rupeees ($4) per day and said they would provide food and lodging. It seemed like a good offer, so I got in."
The men drove Ahmed from Ghaziabad in India's largest state of Uttar Pradhesh into the capital city of Delhi. The car stopped and Ahmed was asked to get out and walk over to another car.
"There as a man inside the car and the two men who had picked me up told me, `You have to go with him. He will tell you what do,'" recalled Ahmed, as he struggled to sit up in bed at home a day after he was released from hospital.
"We drove around for 20 minutes or half an hour," said Ahmed. "While we were driving around, this man asked me if I suffered from any illness."
The man told Ahmed he had to verify whether he was in good health because many labourers had lied about their health and were unable to do their job once they were hired.
"He told me that he wanted a blood sample just to be sure I was well," said Ahmed, who didn't think anything was strange about the man's demands. "We stopped at a small private hospital and they pricked my finger and took a blood sample. Then they did an X-ray to see if I had tuberculosis."
The man, who in Ahmed's recollection, was a short, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair who looked like a construction site manager, made him wait for a little while until he got some results back. The tests showed that Ahmed was well and he was soon back in the car.
"We drove for a long time. Maybe three, 3 1/2 hours. I didn't recognize any of the places on the way except for a sign for a district close to the airport. After a while we started driving into a jungle area. There were wild brambles and it dark and quiet. I still didn't realize anything was wrong."
The car stopped when it reached a large, old house. Inside there were three other men. Like him, they had been recruited to work on whitewashing a building but the so-called manager told them the work had to wait a few days because of government delays in the tender. He promised them their wages would be paid from that day on.
"None of us thought anything was amiss at the time. We'd taken up jobs on these kinds of conditions before. Besides, food and lodging were provided at this place."
On Jan. 21, Ahmed realized he had been scammed. Two Nepalese men came to the house and took him on a three-hour drive into Gurgaon, a suburb known as a computer technology hub.
Once inside a house there, Ahmed was locked inside a room where there were three other men.
"Two armed men came upstairs and told me not to talk to anyone. If I did, I was told I would suffer the consequences."
The four men were scared and none spoke to each other, fearing two armed guards outside the room.
The next morning Ahmed was served a cup of tea. When he asked for some food, he was told to keep quiet and that a doctor would come by to examine him soon.
It wasn't until 10:30 that evening that he was shifted into another room. Two doctors dressed in gowns, their mouths covered by surgical masks, told him to lie down on the operating table.
"I was so scared, I didn't resist. The gunman was standing behind me. The doctor asked me: `What's your name?' I said, `Shakeel.' As he was talking to me, he drove an injection into me. I felt myself fade away."
When he awoke, it was close to 2:30 a.m. the next day.
"My back was hurting. My head was dizzy. There were two or three other doctors in gowns standing around. I started panicking. I asked a doctor, `What have you done to me? I'm in pain.'"
The doctor told Ahmed not to worry, that he would fix him up and send him back onto the street. He was not to tell anyone what had happened. If he did, the doctor said Ahmed would be followed and killed.
"I started crying, sobbing. I thought, my life is over."
The next day, Gurgaon police raided the house, arresting a doctor and several nurses. Ahmed was taken to a hospital in Gurgaon.
Ahmed said he recalls seeing a naked body on the table next to him, where he was operated on.
"I saw it out of the corner of my eye. It was very white, and at the time I thought he was dead. I was too scared to look again. But after the kidney scam was revealed, I realized he was probably a foreigner, and most likely the man who has my kidney," he said.
Back home in his village, he lies in bed, surrounded by family, weak and downcast. His parents, Abdullah and Zaibunissa, believe he can no longer live a full life, even though doctors have assured them that he will be well.
Ahmed, who is unmarried and earns $50 to $75 a month, had supported his sister and her five children after her husband died. Now, his parents worry that he won't be able to do that.
"The only thing he does is hard labour. Now that he can't do that, we are doomed," said his father.
"The men who did this to my son should be caught and hanged."
TheStar.com | News | Search for work cost man a kidney
Indian labourer lured by promise of job was threatened with death after MDs operated
Feb 10, 2008 04:30 AM
Sonya Fatah
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
GHAZIABAD, IndiaThe white sedan stopped in front of Shakeel Ahmed as he stood on the side of the main highway to Delhi. When its occupant offered him a job, he couldn't have been happier.
Little did he know that he was setting off on a harrowing eight-day journey that would end with the forcible removal of one of his kidneys.
When police raided the headquarters of an illegal kidney transplant ring in a Delhi suburb on Jan. 24, they rescued Ahmed and three other men who had been held against their will and operated upon.
It's not clear if Amit Kumar, the alleged kidney-transplant kingpin arrested in Nepal and now deported to India, was one of the doctors who operated on Ahmed.
When 28-year-old Ahmed left his village on Jan. 16, he took his usual position along the highway, hoping to nab a job from the manager of a construction site who might be trolling for cheap, migrant labourers.
So when the white sedan stopped, Ahmed thought himself lucky.
"There were two men inside the car, and they asked me if I was interested in a whitewashing job. They were offering 150 rupeees ($4) per day and said they would provide food and lodging. It seemed like a good offer, so I got in."
The men drove Ahmed from Ghaziabad in India's largest state of Uttar Pradhesh into the capital city of Delhi. The car stopped and Ahmed was asked to get out and walk over to another car.
"There as a man inside the car and the two men who had picked me up told me, `You have to go with him. He will tell you what do,'" recalled Ahmed, as he struggled to sit up in bed at home a day after he was released from hospital.
"We drove around for 20 minutes or half an hour," said Ahmed. "While we were driving around, this man asked me if I suffered from any illness."
The man told Ahmed he had to verify whether he was in good health because many labourers had lied about their health and were unable to do their job once they were hired.
"He told me that he wanted a blood sample just to be sure I was well," said Ahmed, who didn't think anything was strange about the man's demands. "We stopped at a small private hospital and they pricked my finger and took a blood sample. Then they did an X-ray to see if I had tuberculosis."
The man, who in Ahmed's recollection, was a short, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair who looked like a construction site manager, made him wait for a little while until he got some results back. The tests showed that Ahmed was well and he was soon back in the car.
"We drove for a long time. Maybe three, 3 1/2 hours. I didn't recognize any of the places on the way except for a sign for a district close to the airport. After a while we started driving into a jungle area. There were wild brambles and it dark and quiet. I still didn't realize anything was wrong."
The car stopped when it reached a large, old house. Inside there were three other men. Like him, they had been recruited to work on whitewashing a building but the so-called manager told them the work had to wait a few days because of government delays in the tender. He promised them their wages would be paid from that day on.
"None of us thought anything was amiss at the time. We'd taken up jobs on these kinds of conditions before. Besides, food and lodging were provided at this place."
On Jan. 21, Ahmed realized he had been scammed. Two Nepalese men came to the house and took him on a three-hour drive into Gurgaon, a suburb known as a computer technology hub.
Once inside a house there, Ahmed was locked inside a room where there were three other men.
"Two armed men came upstairs and told me not to talk to anyone. If I did, I was told I would suffer the consequences."
The four men were scared and none spoke to each other, fearing two armed guards outside the room.
The next morning Ahmed was served a cup of tea. When he asked for some food, he was told to keep quiet and that a doctor would come by to examine him soon.
It wasn't until 10:30 that evening that he was shifted into another room. Two doctors dressed in gowns, their mouths covered by surgical masks, told him to lie down on the operating table.
"I was so scared, I didn't resist. The gunman was standing behind me. The doctor asked me: `What's your name?' I said, `Shakeel.' As he was talking to me, he drove an injection into me. I felt myself fade away."
When he awoke, it was close to 2:30 a.m. the next day.
"My back was hurting. My head was dizzy. There were two or three other doctors in gowns standing around. I started panicking. I asked a doctor, `What have you done to me? I'm in pain.'"
The doctor told Ahmed not to worry, that he would fix him up and send him back onto the street. He was not to tell anyone what had happened. If he did, the doctor said Ahmed would be followed and killed.
"I started crying, sobbing. I thought, my life is over."
The next day, Gurgaon police raided the house, arresting a doctor and several nurses. Ahmed was taken to a hospital in Gurgaon.
Ahmed said he recalls seeing a naked body on the table next to him, where he was operated on.
"I saw it out of the corner of my eye. It was very white, and at the time I thought he was dead. I was too scared to look again. But after the kidney scam was revealed, I realized he was probably a foreigner, and most likely the man who has my kidney," he said.
Back home in his village, he lies in bed, surrounded by family, weak and downcast. His parents, Abdullah and Zaibunissa, believe he can no longer live a full life, even though doctors have assured them that he will be well.
Ahmed, who is unmarried and earns $50 to $75 a month, had supported his sister and her five children after her husband died. Now, his parents worry that he won't be able to do that.
"The only thing he does is hard labour. Now that he can't do that, we are doomed," said his father.
"The men who did this to my son should be caught and hanged."
TheStar.com | News | Search for work cost man a kidney
