TMC Leader Hits At Modi Government Over 5000 Indians Trapped In Cambodia As 'Cyber Slaves'
Trinamool Congress leader, Saket Gokhale slammed Narendra Modi government for the lack of works done to bring back the 5000 Indians trapped in Cambodia. Citing the Indian Express report about the Indians being used by Cambodia gangs for cyber slavery and online scams, the TMC MP asked “is our idea of “Vishwaguru” only limited to paid crowds chanting Modi’s name on his foreign visits?”.
Gokhale urged the Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar to take immediate actions on the matter.
Shocking that 5000 Indians are currently trapped in Cambodia & forced into cyber slavery & online scams against people back home 👇
An article in the @IndianExpress reported yesterday how over 5000 Indians have been lured to Cambodia with the fake promise of jobs.
These 5000… pic.twitter.com/qhkokrISL7
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) March 30, 2024
Over 5000 Indians are allegedly being held against their will on Cambodia. They were forced to carry out cyber crimes against people in India, said Indian Express. Reportedly, government estimates that the “fraudsters” have allegedly duped people in India of at least Rs 500 crore over the span of last six months.
The media outlet said that those trapped in Cambodia are forced to extort money from people by pretending to be law enforcement officials, saying they had found suspicious materials in their parcel.
Avaran Abraham, Second Secretary (Consular and Diaspora) told that around 130 complaints of Indians trapped in Cambodia have been received by Indian embassy in the country and over 75 people who were forced to carry out cyber frauds have been rescued so far, as said by Indian Express.
He said that the people are going to Cambodia mistaking it to be a data entry jobs, but were wronged by the agents. Only when they reach the country do they realise that they are trapped.
The issue came out when Rourkela police in Odisha cracked down a cyber-crime syndicate on last December 30th. Eight people who were allegedly involved in taking people to Cambodia were arrested. Rourkela police officer said the case was taken on the basis of a senior Central government officer’s complaint who had been duped of over Rs 70 lakh.
Some of the rescued men report about how they were treated. Immediately after reaching Cambodia, their passport will be taken by the Fraudster companies. They were asked to create fake online profiles and look for possible prey for the scam. One of the rescued man Stephen said that, “We had to create fake social media accounts with photographs of women sourced from different platforms. But we were told to be careful while picking these photos. So a South Indian girl’s profile would be used to trap someone in the North so that it did not raise any suspicion. We had targets and if we didn’t meet those, they would not give us food or allow us into our rooms”, as quoted by Indian Express. Some were even said to have undergone physical assault.
