The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday executed a series of trans-state raids, apprehending five individuals allegedly entwined in an international human trafficking and cyber fraud syndicate. These individuals were purportedly enticing Indian youth to foreign lands under the guise of fictitious employment opportunities, according to an official communiqué.
The duped youth were compelled to labor in sham call centers situated in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Laos, and Cambodia, among other locales, as part of an operation predominantly orchestrated by foreign nationals.
They were coerced into illicit online activities, such as credit card fraud, investments in cryptocurrency through counterfeit applications, and honey trapping, detailed the investigative agency.
Manish Hingu of Vadodara, Pahlad Singh of Gopalganj, Nabialam Ray of southwest Delhi, Balwant Kataria of Gurugram, and Sartaj Singh of Chandigarh were detained following raids across 15 locations in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh.
The NIA, in collaboration with state police forces and central intelligence agencies, conducted these synchronized operations. The searches culminated in the confiscation of several incriminating items, including documents, digital devices, handwritten registers, multiple passports, and fraudulent overseas employment letters.
Eight new First Information Reports (FIRs) have been lodged by various state and union territory police forces, leading to the arrest of the five accused. Investigations have further uncovered that the apprehended individuals were coordinating with traffickers operating across international borders to facilitate the clandestine migration of Indian youths from Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam to the Laos SEZ.
These operations were conducted at the behest of foreign-based agents affiliated with well-organized syndicates active in numerous districts of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana. These syndicates maintained connections with operatives across India and in foreign countries like the UAE, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos SEZ.
The searches and subsequent arrests are part of an ongoing NIA investigation, which commenced after the agency assumed control of a case from the Mumbai Police on May 13. The probe revealed that the human trafficking syndicate’s activities extended beyond Mumbai, with ties to facilitators and traffickers across the nation and borders.
The NIA’s investigation has established that the accused were part of an organized trafficking network, systematically luring and trafficking Indian youth to foreign countries under the pretense of promising employment.
