Man held for trafficking 2 youths to Laos for crypto frauds
Mumbai: With the arrest of a 29-year-old Surat-based man, the Bureau of Immigration and the Sahar Police busted a
human trafficking
case at the Mumbai International Airport recently. The accused, PK Chauhan, was allegedly involved in trafficking two men in their early twenties to Laos for committing cryptocurrency frauds.
Chauhan was remanded to judicial custody by a local court on Monday. Sahar police are probing whether he has any local accomplices.
Around 11 pm on May 25, Chauhan approached an immigration counter with his boarding pass for verification. He was followed by a 21-year-old man, also from Surat. Both men were to fly to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam from Mumbai. Then, they were to board another flight from Vietnam to Laos. Their flight to Vietnam was scheduled at 12.40 am on Monday.
The immigration officer at the counter quizzed them about their purpose for visiting Laos.
Chauhan replied it was for work. But the officer was not satisfied. It appeared to him that Chauhan was guiding the younger man and taking him along. The immigration officer alerted his superior.
Meanwhile, there was another 20-year-old man also headed to Laos for work waiting at another immigration counter. All three men were taken aside and quizzed.
The FIR, lodged subsequently on the basis of an immigration officer's statement, says that Chauhan was previously in Laos from Dec 2022 to Feb 2023 through a Dubai-based agent and was involved in a cryptocurrency chatting scam. As part of the scam, he allegedly spoke to people living in the US, Canada and Australia through Facebook chat and convinced them to invest in cryptocurrency. But they never received any returns.
Further, he was in the Golden Triangle (region in South East Asia where borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet) between Dec 2024 and March 2025 where he was again involved in a chatting scam.
According to the FIR, Chauhan was headed to Laos on Monday in connection with another chatting scam and was taking the two younger men along for the same purpose. The two younger men held a BCA (Bachelors in Computer Applications) degree and were promised a job in "computers" with a monthly pay packet of Rs 60000 to Rs 70000 each. They were in touch with Chauhan for a few days before the flight.
Chauhan was handed over to the Sahar Police and placed under arrest.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
20 minutes ago
- Time of India
Four arrested for multi-lakh online investment scams
Chennai: Four men involved in large-scale investment frauds were arrested by the cyber crime police across various zones in Chennai. The north zone police arrested two men based on a complaint from Nandagopal, 38, of Korukkupet. He said that after responding to an Instagram ad, he was contacted via Telegram by a user who promised high returns on dollar investments through an e-venture. He transferred Rs 12 lakh to different accounts. When asked to pay an additional Rs 7 lakh to retrieve his investment, he realised it was a scam. Two suspects—Sitharaman, 37, and Senthilnathan, 28, from Cuddalore—were arrested. Meanwhile, west zone police arrested a man based on a complaint from Saravanan, 43, of Arumbakkam. A Facebook contact convinced him to invest in stock trading, promising high returns. He invested Rs 10 lakh in 14 transactions but was defrauded after the suspect took the money. The accused Renganathan, 26, from Srivaikundam, Thoothukudi district, was arrested. Also, the east zone police arrested one person based on a complaint from Rabbani Khan, 26, who said he was cheated of Rs 9.40 lakh in a crypto ad scam.
Time of India
24 minutes ago
- Time of India
J&K: SPO held with heroin in Udhampur
JAMMU: Police arrested a special police officer (SPO) with over 5g heroin in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district Wednesday. 'A patrolling team intercepted a suspicious person trying to escape. On frisking, police found 5.6g of heroin in his possession. The accused has been identified as Vishal Singh, from Udhampur's Shakti Nagar, posted as an SPO in the same district,' police spokesperson said. In another case, police arrested a Chhattisgarh-based drug peddler and seized 2.4kg ganja from his possession in Kathua district's Ramkot area.
Time of India
25 minutes ago
- Time of India
In Egypt, MPs win strong backing on cross-border terror
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The Indian MPs' delegation, led by Supriya Sule, have held brainstorming sessions with key stakeholders, including Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdellaty on Pakistan-based terror infrastructure and measures to expand bilateral counter-terror Minister Abdelatty reiterated Egypt's full solidarity with India and welcomed deeper bilateral collaboration on counter-terrorism, officials Cairo, the delegation also met with Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary general of the League of Arab States, to discuss India's broad-based political, economic, and cultural engagement with the Arab world. Both sides "emphasised the priority accorded to countering terrorism and the need for sustained multilateral cooperation in this regard."The delegation also met former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. It is understood that the Egyptian side sensitised India about the trans-boundary water sharing issue in Eastern Africa and about the Gaza has been categorical in condemning the Pahalgam terror attack and had backed India's action against terror infrastructure. Egypt, one of key players in the Arab world, has been working with Indonesia-Egypt-Kazakhstan-Bahrain to blunt Pakistani narrative in Indian MPs, led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde, who visited the Western African state of Liberia (which will enter UNSC as a non-permanent member) received strong support on countering cross-border terror."In a gesture of solidarity," Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, and Richard Nagbe Koon, Speaker of the House of Representatives, led the parliamentarians in observing a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, an Indian embassy release said.
