Chhattisgarh man sent to Laos for 'cyber slavery', 3 held

Police have arrested three persons from Mumbai, including a woman, for allegedly trafficking a man from Chhattisgarh's Durg district for 'cyber slavery' in Laos in southeast Asia and cheating him of Rs 2 lakh, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused, Sajah Sheikh, 36, Rafi Khan alias Rafiq Khan, 42, and a woman, all residents of Mumbai, were arrested by a Chhattisgarh police team and brought to Durg on Wednesday, he said.

The action was taken while investigating a complaint lodged by a Durg district resident, a victim of online fraud, with the Cyber Range police station in Durg, the official said.

As per the complaint, the victim, who hails from Bhilai town in the district, was duped of Rs 2 lakh by the accused on the pretext of providing him job of a computer operator in Laos, he said.

A police team, constituted for a detailed investigation, tracked financial transactions and acted on technical evidence to zero in on the location of the accused in Mumbai.

The investigation suggested that Sheikh and the woman used to lure people by sending them advertisements of job opportunities in south-east Asian countries, including Laos.

They had created a fake company, VS Enterprises Manpower Consultancy Pvt Ltd, for the purpose, he said.

In this case, Khan, who was an agent of the racket, had informed the victim about job of a computer operator in Laos and introduced him to Sheikh and his woman associate.

The trio took the man into confidence and offered him a job at a company in Golden Triangle (a special economic zone) in Laos and received Rs 2 lakh as service charge from the victim, the official said.

The accused sent the victim to the southeast Asian country via Thailand by air route.

The Bhilai resident was introduced to the 'manager' of the company in Golden Triangle.

There, the victim was shown some videos during training, which were related to cyber frauds. When the man refused to do the illegal job, he was kept there for four to five days and then sent back to India, he said.

After arriving in Chhattisgarh, the victim told the police about his ordeal and how he was forced to work as a cyber slave.

"The investigation has also revealed the accused had earlier trafficked 8 to 10 persons from India to Laos and Thailand where they were forced into cyber slavery. To save people trapped in cyber slavery in Laos and Thailand, further action will be taken with the assistance of Interpol," the official said.

Cyber slavery refers to a phenomenon where criminal networks force their captives to perpetrate online scams.

Sheikh and Khan were constantly changing their locations in Mumbai, but the duo along with the woman were were nabbed with the help of local police, the official said.

The trio was booked under sections 318 (4) (cheating), 3 (5) common intention and 143 (2) (trafficking) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), he said.