Agent Arrested For Trafficking Youth Into Cyber Slavery
The accused, G. Manikanta, was remanded to judicial custody following complaints from victims who were rescued and repatriated through the Indian Embassy.
Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam cyber crime police arrested a Konaseema-based agent for luring unemployed youth with promises of high-paying data entry jobs abroad and trafficking them to Chinese-run cyber scam centres in Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangkok and Laos.
The accused, G. Manikanta, was remanded to judicial custody following complaints from victims who were rescued and repatriated through the Indian Embassy. Police said the victims were contacted via Telegram, interviewed online and sent abroad, where they were forced to work in cyber fraud operations run by Chinese nationals.
In one case, a youth from Visakhapatnam was trafficked to Myanmar and compelled to participate in online scams until a military raid in October 2025 led to his release and return to India.
Investigations revealed that such victims were coerced into committing cybercrime as part of organised scam networks. Police warned that these networks have now shifted tactics, using Indians already based abroad to recruit youth from India with monetary inducements, instead of directly operating through local agents.
