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Hyderabad: The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) arrested five persons from Hyderabad, Mysore and Visakhapatnam for allegedly trafficking unemployed young men and women to Myanmar, forcing them into organised cybercrime operations.

The accused, Vasam Govardhan, from Quthbullapur (native of Warangal); Banothu Madanlal, also from Warangal; Syed Mohammad Madani from Mysore; Suggana Sudheer Kumar from Krishna district in Andhra and Gangala Naveen, from Uppal (native of Tirupathi).

The arrests were based on a complaint by one of the victims, Charan, who stated that “agents” lured them with the promise of providing lucrative overseas jobs.

“A special investigation team (SIT) was formed and the probe exposed multiple accused persons involved in various trafficking networks,” said director of Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB), Shikha Goel.

Prime accused Vasam Goverdhan set up YUGA, a consultancy company that promised overseas jobs. He neither registered this company as a protector of immigrants under government law, nor have valid documents or licenses to run. Through social media, he targeted desperate job seekers.

His friend and another accused, Banoth Madhanlal, met Sudheer Kumar, who provided an Instagram ID through which interviews were conducted. “Madanlal was interviewed online by a woman who sent him flight tickets to Myanmar, where he joined a Chinese-run fraud centre,” Goel said.

Once there, Madanlal realised that these fraud centres offered between USD 3000 and USD 5000 as commission for every recruit. Upon knowing, Govardhan began advertising employment opportunities and started scouting candidates online. He also set up an office in Warangal to facilitate recruitment.

It is through these advertisements that Charan contacted Goverdhan for a job. He gave a huge amount of money and travelled to Myawaddy in Myanmar. There, the young man found himself with many others like him, forced into cybercrime operations, including investment frauds, digital arrests, OTP harvesting, and honey traps.

When they resisted, they were threatened and asked to pay an amount of USD 5000, leaving them with no choice but to work. Charan and others were confined, their passports seized and forced to work 16–18 hours a day in online scam operations run by foreigners.

“These arrests are part of the ongoing SIT operation. We have issued Look Out Circulars (LOCs) against the identified accused persons operating from abroad,” Goel said.