Filmi Crime Connects Mauritius and Myanmar

Hyderabad:The illegal recruitment racket that ended up gullible youngsters as slave labour in the illegal call centres operated by cybercrime gangs in Myanmar has many features of a thriller movie — international criminal gangs, local aides joining hands with criminals, and innocent youth in search of overseas jobs getting trapped in the criminal activity, a providential escape and the “long arms of justice” arresting them.

The story begins with Banothu Madanlal (33), a student and a native of Warangal district, meeting his colleague Suggana Sudheer Kumar (26), a native of Gannavaram in Krishna district, in Mauritius.

Over a period of time, they become friends. When Sudheer gets selected for a job in Myanmar, Madhanlal too expresses interest in joining the same company.

Using an Instagram ID shared by Sudheer, Madhanlal contacts a woman working for a company based in Myanmar. After a round of interviews and completing other formalities, Madhanlal gets selected for a data entry operator job in Myanmar.

Madhanlal flies to Thailand using an air ticket sent by the woman and subsequently travels to Myanmar to work in Chinese-run fraud centres run by HS company, where Sudheer was already employed.

In Myanmar, Sudheer introduced Madhanlal to his roommate Mohammad Madani alias Max, who worked in the recruiting wing of the HS company. Madani informs him that the HS company offers a lucrative amount of $5,000 (around Rs 4 lakh) to an agent for recruiting each candidate.

Enticed by a lucrative deal, Madhanlal contacted the woman recruiter and expressed his interest in joining hands with them. He ropes in his friend in Warangal, Vasam Goverdhan, for his plan.

Vasam Goverdhan, a private employee and a resident of Qutubullapur, runs a consultancy firm YUGA to recruit candidates for overseas jobs. As he had no licence, he used to get candidates through social media platforms and send them abroad through other legally registered agencies.

When Charan and Shaik Ahmed Pasha approached him through a friend for overseas job opportunities, Goverdhan arranged an interview with “Love K” of the HS company through Instagram. She conducted the interview and selected both candidates for the post of data entry operator.

After landing in Bangkok, the phone numbers of Charan and Ahmed Pasha were added to a Telegram group operated by Chinese handlers. They were guided step-by-step, picked up by a taxi driver, and eventually transported to KK4, Myawaddy, Myanmar.

Once inside the fraud centre, the victims realised the true nature of the job. When they refused to work and asked to return to India, they were told to pay $5,000. Unable to pay the amount, the victims mostly agree to become part of the cyber crime gang which seeks to steal money from innocent Indians through various digital scams such as investment frauds, digital arrests, OTP harvesting, and romance frauds. If the victims refused to work, the company officials torture them.

TGCSB director Shikha Goel appreciated the efforts of K.V.M. Prasad, Deputy SP and SHO of CCPS, TGCSB headquarters, and SIT members N. Venu Gopal Reddy, DySP; Inspectors Laxmi Narayana and Dattadri; and sub-inspectors Ramu Naik and Sravan Kumar for tracing leads and arresting the accused.