The Crime Branch CID (CB-CID) Police has arrested a key suspect who was allegedly part of a gang that sent job aspirants to Laos and forced scamming jobs. He was nabbed when he was about to leave for Laos in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata.

Educated youth from various states of India seeking jobs abroad, are being recruited by illegal recruitment agencies and sent to South-East Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, on tourist visas. Such victims were trapped in scam compounds and forced to do cyber-frauds.

The victims were made to contact people through fake social media IDs and manipulate them to invest in fake applications like Bitcoin and Online games. They were subjected to cruelty and physical abuse if they refused to cooperate- which is called cyber slavery.

These cyber slavery cases are being handled by CBCID. The cases were registered against the illegal recruiting agents under various criminal laws for trafficking victims and violating the license procedures as per the Emigration Act, 1983.

The CB CID Police has now arrested the accused who has been identified as Shankar Sarkar of West Bengal. Police sources said Shankar was looking for a job abroad. Abdul Kadher and his associates, Antony and Shoba, were running an illegal recruitment agency and offered Shankar a cooking assistant job in Serbia. They also received Rs. 2 lakh from Shankar in 2021. However, they sent Shankar Sarkar to Laos for a scamming job in 2022. He worked as a technician in Taniyan group and Jinlong group, two Chinese companies of Golden Triangle at Laos for two years.

While he was in Laos, Shankar met James, an agent in Ethiopia. James assured Shankar to pay commission for recruiting Indians for scamming jobs. Following Shankar Sarkar’s instruction, Abdul Kadher sent nine persons from Tamil Nadu to Laos after recruiting them on the pretext of data entry jobs through Syed, a Tiruchi agent. Shankar collected US $1000 from five Indian victims for Laos Immigration Clearance and received 2000 RMB (Chinese currency) from James as commission for sourcing Indians for scamming jobs.

While Syed and Abdul Kadher were already arrested, Shankar was arrested based on a complaint from Arun of Salem on July 4 with Thammampatti Police.

He was detained at Kolkata Airport based on the Look Out Circular initiated by CBCID when he was about to take flight to Laos. The team took custody of the accused and obtained a transit warrant from a local court in Barrackpore, North 24 Parganas. He was brought to Tamil Nadu and remanded to judicial custody.

It may be recalled that 12 illegal agents were arrested recently and remanded in Thanjavur and Trichy CBCID ranges for indulging in luring people to work abroad in scam compounds. In total, 16 cases have been registered in CBCID pertaining to cyber slavery offences and 37 accused, including 6 Malaysian nationals, were arrested.