Mumbai: Days after a Wadala resident was arrested in a human trafficking racket, the police said that the man, Manish Grey alias Maddy, is the kingpin of the scam. He is a professional actor who has appeared in a few web series and TV shows. Four of his accomplices, one of them a Chinese national, were arrested on Thursday while 60 persons who were trafficked to Myanmar have been rescued and are on their way to Mumbai.
TOI was the first to report about his arrest in its Thursday edition in a report ‘Wadala man who trafficked 60 to SE Asia with fake jobs held’
He and his gang allegedly trafficked at least 60 youths from the city with lucrative job offers in Thailand and Myanmar, but instead forced them into cyber slavery — made to indulge in cyber crimes — said officials from Maharashtra Nodal Cyber Police.
The four arrested accomplices have been identified as Taisan/Aditya Ravi Chandran, Rupnarayan Gupta, Jensi Rani, and Talaniti Nulaxi, the Chinese national of Kazakhstan origin.
Last month, about 20 youths who had also been trafficked, managed to return to India and lodged complaints against the gang. The arrests took place based on a complaint by Satish Sharma, a resident of Andheri (east).
The police said Maddy played a key role in contacting the job-seekers on social media, luring them with high-paying jobs in Thailand, and then illegally taking them in boats to Myanmar. “There, they were and forced to participate in cyber frauds… They were told they were employed by a Chinese company called DBL,” an officer said, adding: “On entering Myanmar, the job-seekers were taken to guarded compounds controlled by armed rebel groups.” They were kept in Miawadi area, a fiefdom of rebels guarding the place with AK-47 rifles and automatic weapons.
The job-seekers from the first batch alleged that agents had sold them for US dollars 5,000 each. One of the rescued men said: “They seized our passports. They beat us up even… and force us to indulge in cyber frauds, including extortion, and digital arrests.”
Additional director general of police (Nodal Cyber) Yashasvi Yadav, told mediapersons during a press conference that the job-seekers also reported of threat of organ removal if they did not comply besides physical torture.
The rescue operation was conducted with assistance from the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.