Azad Khan and Ghanashyam Nunia (right) in Raiganj on Sunday. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Sept. 7: Two labour agents were arrested from Howrah station on Friday after a nine-year-old called up his neighbour in Itahar alleging that he, along with other day workers trapped with him in Pune, would soon become victims of a kidney racket.

Police also rescued two of the alleged victims, although the boy, Rahul Hossain, was not among them.

Ghanashyam Nunia and Azad Khan, the two men who were rescued, said Rahul is still at the stone crushing unit in Pune where he had been sent by his father to work. The duo also claimed that they had overheard a conversation that they would soon lose one kidney each and then allowed to go home.

The police had acted on information provided by state civil defence minister Srikumar Mukherjee, who is also the CPI MLA from Itahar.

Mukherjee said on September 3, Rahul’s relatives had come to his residence here and reported the phone call.

Azizul Rahman said he had found it difficult to resist when labour agents offered his son, Rahul, a “lucrative” job. “We had been told he would get three meals a day besides the money. It was difficult to resist.”

Rahul had said over the phone that the agents were coming to Calcutta with Nunia and Azad. “He identified them as Rarzul Basi and Musa Basni. I immediately contacted the director-general of police in Writers’ Buildings and a trap was laid and the men were arrested,” Mukherjee said.

Azad said a labour agent, Zakir Khan, had contacted him in July and offered him Rs 200 a day for a job in Digha. “I and five others, including Kader Ali, were taken to Malda where we were joined by five more from that district. We were taken to Calcutta first.” Zakir made them board a train and then disappeared. “We were afraid of the GRP. When the train reached Pune, Zakir reappeared and said we would have to work in a factory there,” said Azad.

At the stone crushing unit, the men had to toil from 6am till midnight. “We were beaten up and made to go without food. Our room was guarded by armed men.”

“A doctor came and took blood samples of all of us. We also heard that the blood group of two of us has matched with a patient’s in Calcutta.” Rahul had managed to slip out for one brief moment, as he often ran errands for the guards, to call up one of his neighbours, Azad said.

Mukherjee said a team would be soon sent to Pune to locate the others. The local police have been contacted.

North Dinajpur police chief Sankar Singha said the two arrested had been remanded in police custody for 12 days. “We are interrogating them.”