HYDERABAD: Six persons from Armoor in Nizamabad district, including a 23-year-old private school teacher and her 24-year-old husband, who were allegedly duped and trafficked to a cybercrime hub in Myawaddy, Myanmar, last year, were flown back to Hyderabad after seeking help from local police and the Indian embassy.
Based on a complaint by one of the victims, the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) on Monday registered a case against a local recruiter and others on charges of human trafficking. The complainant, a 28-year-old farmer from Armoor, told investigators he was approached in September 2025 by a friend, Manideep, with the promise of a data entry job in Thailand.
He flew from Hyderabad to Bangkok on September 23, after which he was allegedly handed over to another Telangana native, Challa Garige Naveen. From there, he was smuggled by road and boat across the border and taken to Dongmei Park in Myawaddy, the complaint said.
The victim alleged his passport was seized, his name changed to "Jess", and that he was forced to sign an employment bond before being trained to run social media romance scams targeting US citizens. "Salaries were paid in Thai baht and converted into rupees through cryptocurrency channels," he told investigators.
According to the complaint, Naveen allegedly collected ₹1.7 lakh as commission for trafficking him and a few other Indians. Five more victims from Armoor reported similar experiences. They include a 29-year-old housekeeping worker, a 31-year-old milk vendor, a 26-year-old student, and the young couple.
All were promised data entry jobs in Thailand, routed through Bangkok, and delivered to cybercrime compounds in Myanmar allegedly run by Chinese syndicates. The victims told police they were beaten and forced to perform physical exercises for failing to meet targets. Those seeking to leave were asked to pay $5,000 as a "release fee".
When a government crackdown intensified in Myawaddy in the first week of December 2025, traffickers attempted to shift workers to Cambodia, but the six refused. "We went to a local police post and they moved us to a rescue camp sheltering more than 200 Indians. After Indian embassy verification, we were brought to Delhi in an Indian Air Force aircraft on January 7 and reached Hyderabad a day later," one of them said.
Officials said a total of 17 victims from Myanmar have returned to Telangana so far. The first FIR was registered on the complaint of one of the victims against Manideep, Naveen and others under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Section 66D of the Information Technology Act.