Cyber slavery, cyber frauds on the rise in Bihar

347 FROM BIHAR WHO HAD GONE ON TOURIST/VISITOR VISAS TO COUNTRIES LIKE MYANMAR, LAOS, THAILAND, CAMBODIA AND VIETNAM, SINCE 2022, ARE NOW BELIEVED TO HAVE FALLEN PREY TO 'CYBER SLAVERY'.

- Ruchir Kumar

PATNA: Vaishali's Mohammed Arshad, 34, regrets not being able to attend the burial of his father-in-law Md Kamaal, 56, a small-time tobacco seller who died of a heart attack at his Howrah residence in Kolkata last May.

Trapped in Laos in 'cyber slavery', the new job con, an organised crime of scamming people through digital means, Arshad could not even participate in the 'Quran Khawani' - the reading of verses from the sacred Quran - on his father-in-law's 'Chaliswan', the 40th day of death, considered a significant period among Muslims when family and friends gather to pray for the deceased soul, marking the end of the formal mourning period.

"My Chinese employers at Rehani Technology in Laos around the 'Golden Triangle' had confiscated my passport and refused to return it till I paid them ₹10 lakh or worked there at least for a year," said Arshad.

A discreet SOS email to the Indian embassy in Laos saved Arshad, as he walked free after three months on June 2 last year, being among the 64 from Bihar rescued by the Indian government last year from 'cyber slavery' around the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), which includes parts of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, centered on the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers, known as the largest opium-producing areas of the world.

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, commonly referred to as 14C, under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), had in June last year shared with the state police a list of 347 from Bihar who had gone on tourist/visitor visas to southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, since 2022, but had not returned yet. Most of them are now believed to have fallen prey to 'cyber slavery', where victims are allegedly coerced into conducting cyber fraud and other illegal activities under the threat of violence and harassment.