The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested four key accused involved in an international human trafficking and cybercrime syndicate from Delhi. According to a statement issued by the NIA, the accused used to lure and trap the Indian youth on the pretext of offering them jobs and sending them to foreign countries. The accused were arrested on Monday by the federal probe agency. They were identified as Manzoor Alam alias Guddu, a resident of Delhi, Sahil and Ashish alias Akhil of Bahadurgarh (Haryana), and Pawan Yadav alias Afroze alias Afzal of Siwan (Bihar), the statement said.
The NIA statement further said, "The trafficked youth were forced to work in fake call centres at Laos, Golden Triangle SEZ, among other places in the South East Asian region, as part of the massive network being operated by foreign nationals through operatives based in various parts of India, Laos, and other countries." The youth were then coerced to carry out online fraud through these call centres, the youth were coerced into carrying out illegal online activities. These frauds included investment scams, relationship scams, and cryptocurrency scams.
NIA arrested five accused in May
It is pertinent to note that the NIA took over the case from Delhi Police on June 19 this year. The federal probe agency is pursuing its investigations to dismantle all such active human trafficking syndicates. Earlier in May, the agency conducted massive searches in 15 locations across six states and two Union territories (Maharashtra, UP, Bihar, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh) and arrested five youths. The raids were carried out in collaboration with the state/UT police.
The accused were identified as Manish Hingu of Vadodara, Pahlad Singh of Gopalganj, Nabialam Ray of South-West Delhi, Balwant Kataria of Gurugram and Sartaj Singh of Chandigarh. The raids were proved instrumental in the case and eight new FIRs in human trafficking and cyber fraud cases were registered. Later in June, the probe agency chargesheeted these five accused, including foreign nationals.
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