Vadodara woman working for ‘cyber slavery’ network held, six arrests so far

The arrest comes days after the arrest of the alleged mastermind, Neel Purohit, of the network for running the “cyber slavery” racket.

Superintendent of Police( Cyber Crime) Vivek Bheda said, “Cyber slavery is a serious kind of cyber crime. We had recently arrested the mastermind, Neel Purohit, who works for the Chinese cyber syndicate. They would lure men with the promise of fat salaries and send them to South-East Asian countries like Myanmar and Thailand, where the Chinese cyber mafia would force them to commit cyber crimes such as cryptocurrency frauds, sextortion, digital arrest and other online frauds…”

Chauhan, who holds a diploma in engineering from a Vadodara-based private University, used to contact youth through social media and earn commissions up to Rs 3 lakh per individual for trafficking them, Bheda said.

“One of his (Purohit’s) main sub-agents is Payal Chauhan… The probe is on. We have, so far, found that the three persons from Gujarat had been sent into cyber slavery by Chauhan. We have also recovered some serial numbers of passports from Nepal and Pakistan from her phone. We are investigating if these passport holders were genuine and if they are victims or agents…” Bheda said.

Apart from this, police said that Chauhan was also involved in two other kinds of cyber frauds. “She would also provide USDT and crypto accounts. She used to provide master gaming ids for facilitating betting which is banned in India…,” Bheda said.

Chauhan’s arrest has taken the total number of accused held in the case so far to at least six.

Prior to Purohit’s arrest, the CID-Crime had nabbed two of his main associates – sub-agents Hitesh Somaiya and Sonal Faldu. Two more accused involved in the racket, Bhavdeep Jadeja and Hardeep Jadeja, were also arrested.

Many Indians trapped in these camps have been rescued in the past three years through joint operations involving the authorities of the governments of India, Thailand and Myanmar.

Nearly 4,000 Indian nationals repatriated through coordinated efforts of the Ministry of External Affairs, Interpol channels, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Central Intelligence Bureau (IB) and state police agencies, the release said.

Many rescued victims told the authorities that they were trapped by Neel Purohit and his sub-agents, including Payal Chauhan, said the release.

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