One more held for alleged duping of aspirants lured in by job offers in Laos
The Thoppumpady police have arrested one more person in connection with the case registered for allegedly duping job aspirants lured in by the promise of high-paying jobs to Laos where they were forced to work as agents of a Chinese company for conning people online using fake social media profiles.
The arrested is Badusha of Palluruthy. He was reportedly arrested on the basis of information elicited from another accused, Afsar Ashraf, also a resident of Palluruthy, who was arrested on Wednesday. The job aspirants were allegedly sold to the Chinese company by the accused.
According to the police, Badusha helped Afsar with the contacts in Laos. Badusha is suspected to have taken many people to Laos. “Both are giving various figures about the people they had taken to Laos. We will have to verify them,” said police sources.
The Laos-based racket came to light when the Thoppumpady police arrested Afsar on a petition by one Shuhaib Hassan of Palluruthy, one of the victims. The accused reportedly worked for a Chinese company and took six young men from Palluruthy, including the petitioner. They were initially taken to Bangkok on ‘Visa on Arrival’. It is not clear whether all those who were flown out to Laos were kept in the dark about the real intentions, or some of them actually knew them.
From Bangkok, the aspirants were flown to Laos, where they were allegedly forced to sign documents written in Chinese and had their passports confiscated.
They were then given fake identity cards as persons of Indian origin based in the U.K., U.S., and other European countries. They then allegedly reached out to Indians over various social media platforms, luring them with investments entailing huge profits. Those invested were reportedly duped into believing that their profits were rising, thus enticing them into investing even more.
According to a preliminary assessment by the police, it is suspected that around 50 persons from across the State have been taken to Laos over the past one year.
The Kochi City police are set to alert the Union government about the possibility of Keralites being trapped in Laos. The idea is to pass the information to the Indian embassy in Laos through the Union government and get the law enforcement agencies of that country involved.
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