Hyderabad: A 26-year-old TV technician from Hanumakonda has lodged a complaint with the Telangana cyber security bureau (TGCSB), alleging that his brother-in-law trafficked him to Laos and “sold” him to an international cybercrime syndicate operating from the Golden Triangle.The victim claimed that his brother-in-law, who had travelled to Laos on December 25, 2024 for employment, enticed him to follow. “My brother-in-law said he was working as a data entry operator, earning a monthly salary of 6,000 Yuan. On January 2, 2025, he convinced me to travel to Laos by offering a similar data-entry job with the same pay. Following his instructions, I obtained a passport and sent 50,000 via UPI for tickets in January. I left India on February 19 for Bangkok with another jobseeker, Sujith Babu from Visakhapatnam,” the victim said.A fraudster, identifying himself as his brother-in-law’s associate, Ankur, guided them from Bangkok to Vientiane in Laos. On February 26, they were handed over to the staff at the Boshang Building in the Golden Triangle, which is operated by the K8 group, a gang involved in the racket.“K8 gang members confiscated our passports, beat us with belts and electric prods, and forced us to create Facebook profiles using AI-generated images of women to lure victims onto fake investment apps. My brother-in-law later confessed that he received a commission of 1 lakh per recruit from the scammers,” the victim said.Around 20 Indians were confined to one floor of the Boshang Building. Those who wished to return home were told to pay 2 lakh to retrieve their passports. The victim received only 3,500 Yuan each for March and April. In July, the victim, along with a few others managed to alert the Indian Embassy about their situation. A joint team of officials from Laos, China, and India raided the building on July 2, freeing the victims and recovering their passports.“I was short of money, and hoping I would be paid my pending salary, I stayed in the Golden Triangle for another month. Eventually, I borrowed funds from friends back home and flew to India on August 12,” the victim said.Following his complaint, TGCSB’s Warangal PS registered a case on August 30 under section 48 (abetment outside India for offence in India), 143(1)(d) (trafficking of person), and 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the BNS against the accused. “We have information that the main accused, who is a relative of the victim, has also recently returned to India. We are trying to locate him,” an investigator said.
