Indian family is killed in cold blood to create drugs front

London, Nov 10:

Entrepreneur Amarjit Chohan, 46, vanished from his home in west London in February last year along with his wife Nancy, their two children and his mother-in-law.

Chohan's body was found dumped in the sea at Bournemouth, southern England, in April 2005, followed a few months later by those of his wife and mother-in-law. The remains of the children are still missing.

Three men went on trial on Monday for their murder, with the spotlight at the Old Bailey criminal court on Kenneth Regan, 54, who was arrested in Belgium last August.

It is alleged that Regan, a convicted drug dealer, murdered the family in order to seize control of Chohan's firm CIBA Freight which he intended to use as a front for smuggling drugs into Britain.

Setting out his case, prosecutor Richard Horwell told jurors on Tuesday that it was "obvious" when Chohan's remains were recovered that he had been "restrained" during his ordeal.

"He had been gagged with packing tape. Furthermore, a urine sample revealed an unusually high level of gammahydroxubutrate, a drug more commonly known as GHB, which can be used as a sedative," Horwell said.

Though it was unclear where exactly Chohan and his family were held, it was possible that they had been detained in Regan's home in Wiltshire, southern England, where the front room was subsequently redecorated.

"Wherever he was held, he (Chohan) was forced to sign a number of documents and blank sheets of paper," the prosecutor said.

"He was also forced to record a number of voice messages in an attempt by his captors to placate and reassure his wife and friends."

The prosecutor continued: "While imprisoned, Mr Chohan signed a number of documents relating to his freight company, CIBA Freight. These were to be used by Regan to convince staff that he had handed over the business."

Blank pages were recovered later - blank apart from Chohan's signatures at the bottom, Horwell told the jury.

Co-accused with Regan are William Horncy, 52, of Bournemouth, and Peter Rees, 39, of Portsmouth. All three men deny the charges against them.

Their trial continues. If convicted, they face life in prison.

(AFP)

Dreams turn sour for young Indian docs in UK

LONDON, NOV 10:

"Everyone who lands up in the United Kingdom regrets within a week that he has come here," said 30-year-old Teotia, who has a post-graduate qualification in general medicine from Bangalore.

"It's now five months after I passed my exam and I have filled at least 400 applications, and there is not a single shortlisting for an interview for me," he told AFP.

Pulled by a tempting trainee salary of 22,000 pounds, about 10 times the average they could expect back home, as many as 30 percent of India's medical graduates every year opt to come to Britain.

On arrival, they must take the second part of the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) exam, which costs 430 pounds. The 135-pound first part will already have been taken and passed back home.

The PLAB secures registration with the General Medical Council (GMC), step one to becoming a trainee doctor in Britain's state-run, free-care-for-all National Health Service (NHS).

Sanjay ended up in East Ham, one of east London's poorest districts, where the burgeoning demand for PLAB cramming courses has led to an influx of up to 500 so-called 'plabbers' a month.

"It was a pathetic situation in most of the houses where PLAB doctors stayed, 10-12 doctors apart from the landlords paying 200 pounds-a-month for one room," he said. "Now I realise that it was far better in India."

Real trouble looms post-PLAB when doctors find themselves caught in a vicious circle, desperate for experience and unable to get it. Faced with year-long waiting lists in some hospitals, trainees fork out hundreds of pounds to shadow a consultant, hoping that he may one day become their all-important local referee.

Sandip Mandal, a 32-year-old postgraduate in medicine from Kolkata, arrived in Britain in December 2003 and passed his PLAB the following month. He is still searching for work almost a year later.

"When I was in India my impression was that after passing PLAB I'll get a clinical attachment very soon and I'll get a job within three to four months and maximum six months," he told AFP.

"After August I got three interviews in different facilities, but I was not selected," he said. "I feel that to get an interview is basically a lottery, because for one post it is chosen from six or seven hundred people."

Like Teotia, Mandal's advice to those back home thinking of making the trip is not to bother. "Don't come here to suffer. I have been here for about 11 months without any job and I have spent lots of pounds here which I haven't in India," he said.

Anand Kulkarni, an Indian-born consultant anaesthetist at Tameside General Hospital in Ashton Under Lyne, northwest England, told AFP the problem is getting worse and worse.

"Nothing has been done," he said. "Basically, the number of people taking PLAB has gone up. There is a misconception back home that the UK is in need of doctors and that there is a big shortage of doctors," he said.

Everyone, including the General Medical Council, seems to agree that the opportunities in Britain are at consultant level, not at the junior level, but somehow that message is not getting across to where it has to.

"The solution is that either the GMC should cut down the number of people taking PLAB or the government should guarantee a job once they pass the PLAB," Kulkarni said.

Despite the financial and emotional struggle, Kulkarni does not write off the decision to come to Britain. "In my opinion the NHS is a very fair system," he said.

"Once they get on to a training post, I have seen most of them progressing very well through the system and have been successful in their exams and in their careers and most of them have become consultants themselves."

At the end of September, 2003, over 13,000, or 16.8 percent of Britain's medical and dental staff were of Indian origin, according to official figures. The GMC told AFP it was bringing in concessions in February next year to try and make it cheaper for foreign students taking the PLAB in Britain.

(AFP)

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