CBI Busts Human Trafficking Racket Sending Indian Youth to Cyber Scam Hubs in Myanmar

In a major crackdown on international human trafficking, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two agents — Soyal Akhtar and Mohit Giri — from Zunzanu, Rajasthan, for allegedly trafficking young men from Gujarat and Rajasthan to Myanmar. The victims were reportedly confined in guarded compounds and forced to work as “cyber slaves” in online scam operations.

According to officials, the arrests were made when the two accused returned to India along with several rescued victims. The CBI has registered two cases of human trafficking and wrongful confinement, both punishable with life imprisonment.

Investigations revealed that Akhtar and Giri acted as local recruiters for a global crime network that lured unemployed youth with fake job offers in digital marketing and IT roles abroad. Once the victims reached Thailand on tourist visas, they were illegally taken across the border into Myanmar, where they were trapped inside fortified scam compounds.

A senior CBI officer explained, “The victims were beaten, threatened and kept under constant watch. Their passports and phones were seized, and they were forced to run online scams, including investment frauds, fake police calls, and romance scams targeting people in India and other countries.”

The CBI described these Myanmar-based “cyber scam factories” as modern-day slavery centers where victims must cheat others online to “earn” their freedom. The agency is now investigating the money trails linking Indian recruiters to foreign handlers based in Myanmar, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations.

Preliminary findings suggest that dozens of young men from Banaskantha, Kutch, and Sabarkantha in Gujarat, and Sirohi, Barmer, and Jaipur in Rajasthan, were trafficked over the past year through similar job rackets.

“This is a disturbing new trend — the merger of human trafficking and cybercrime,” a senior officer said. “Desperate youth are being tricked with the promise of dollar-paying jobs, only to find themselves enslaved in digital scam factories abroad.”

The CBI has launched a wider probe to identify more agents and rescue remaining victims trapped in these compounds.