Mumbai: Busting the lid off a human trafficking and cyber slavery racket, the South Region Cyber Police arrested one individual from Mira Road on Wednesday. Police said the accused, Salman Shaikh, had trafficked at least seven Indians to Laos, via Thailand, earlier this year under the guise of placements. However their passports were taken away at Laos and they were forced to indulge in cyber crimes. Police are looking for Shaikh’s associates.The incident dates back to February. The complainant resides at Antop Hill and was looking for work. While surfing an online placements portal, he was introduced to Shaikh. According to the police, Shaikh offered him a data entry job in Thailand at a monthly pay of Rs 70,000. The complainant was interested in the offer. He along with a friend met Salman and paid him Rs 30000 each for flight tickets and a visa for Thailand. On Feb 9, Shaikh took the complainant and his friend to Bangkok. At that time, Shaikh had brought along three other job aspirants from India with him. Shaikh sought the help of a Chinese woman and the group of five Indians were taken from the Bangkok airport to Laos in a car. At Laos, they were handed over to a Chinese national who took away their passports. He ran a call centre where the five Indians were forced to indulge in cyber crimes. They were asked to reach out to people globally via WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram and con them to extort money. The Indians were prohibited from leaving the call centre. The complainant pleaded to be released at which his Chinese captor demanded 20000 Chinese Yuan. But the complainant did not have that kind of money to pay up. According to the police, when Shaikh trafficked two more Indians to Laos the next time, he took the complainant back to India with him “in exchange”. On Aug 26, the complainant approached the police and an FIR was registered.Police said Shaikh’s passport had a different address while he was putting up at Mira Road. A team of Cyber officers under the supervision of joint commissioner Lakhmi Gautam, DCP Purushottam Karad and senior inspector Nandkumar Gopale, tracked down Shaikh to Naya Nagar in Mira Road and arrested him.
