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Kazakh national among 3 arrested for trafficking workers for cyber crime centres
The accused, identified as Talaniti Nulaxi, 22, was arrested from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on March 26
PANAJI: Three men including a Kazakh national of Chinese origin have been arrested for allegedly cheating people into working for cyber crime centres in Thailand, the Goa Police said.
The accused, identified as Talaniti Nulaxi, 22, was arrested from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on March 26, the same day a look-out notice was issued for him as he attempted to flee the country, police said.
Police tracked down Nulaxi, after arresting Adithya Ravichandran, 22, who was living in Bengaluru, and his boss Rupnarayan Gupta, 36, a resident of Mumbai who claimed to be running an agency that helped people get jobs abroad.
“The gang was also involved in hiring of the victims for committing forced financial fraud using social media platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat and Zoom. The gang conducted meetings and interviews on Zoom to discuss their functioning,” superintendent of police Rahul Gupta said.
“Adithya worked for second accused Rupnarayan Gupta who is running Evanka, a recruitment agency for work abroad in Mulund West, Mumbai. The agency is not registered with the Ministry of External Affairs to send Indians abroad. Rupnarayan receives data of candidates from his agents in the country which he then forwarded to recruiters abroad for interviews,” Gupta said.
Talaniti Nulaxi had stayed in Bengaluru for five days and was helping set up a call centre.
“Chinese nationals are active in Thailand, Cambodia, etc. They have an organised machinery with a hierarchy. He is part of this larger network. This is obviously part of the larger investigation which will go ahead for the next few days,” Gupta also said.
Goa’s Director General of Police Alok Kumar said the investigation revealed that the gang was also involved in recruiting young women with the promise of ‘work from home’ who would then be used for honey trapping and extortion.
“We are also investigating some details that have come to light so far which indicate that this gang was looking at starting call centres similar to those in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, in India, Nepal and a few other countries, which they had identified. He was also in talks to hire space in multi storey buildings for the same,” Alok Kumar said.
