NIA arrests 4 men suspected to be part of international human trafficking syndicate

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested four key accused involved in luring and trafficking Indian youth to foreign countries on the pretext of offering them jobs, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

The accused arrested on Monday have been identified as Manjoor Alam alias Guddu of Delhi, Sahil and Ashish alias Akhil of Bahadurgarh (Haryana), and Pawan Yadav alias Afroze alias Afzal of Siwan (Bihar), it said.

They were part of an organised trafficking syndicate involved in luring and trafficking Indian youth to foreign countries on the pretext of offering them lucrative jobs, NIA’s investigations have revealed.

"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," said the statement issued by the federal probe agency.

Through these call centres, the youth were coerced into carrying out illegal online activities such as investment scams, relationship scams, and cryptocurrency scams, it said.

The NIA, which had taken over the case from Delhi Police on June 19 this year, is continuing with its investigations to dismantle all such human trafficking syndicates.

In May, the agency conducted extensive searches in 15 locations across six states and two Union territories, in collaboration with the respective state/UT police.

The searches led to the registration of eight new FIRs in human trafficking and cyber fraud cases.

Subsequently, in June, the NIA charge sheeted five accused, including foreign nationals, in a similar case in Mumbai.