‘Duped, sent to blacklisted Moscow college, forced to eat beef’: 4 Punjab men land in Russian jail, deported

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According to the FIR, the complainants paid Rs 3-4 lakh each to the agents to reach Russia on a study visa, but upon reaching Moscow, they were detained by the Russian Police and had to spend at least seven days in jail.

Duped by Instagram ad

Speaking to The Indian Express, one of the complainants, Rawat Bhatti, 28, a resident of Ferozepur, said that they had stumbled upon an advertisement by the agents on Instagram.

“We were given letters for MIK College in Moscow, where the agents claimed to have got our admissions done in a Russian language learning course. However, upon reaching Russia, we found police waiting for us. Police said the college was blacklisted and took us into custody on November 6. There were at least 30-35 other students from Punjab and Haryana, and all of us were lodged in jail for over a week, forced to eat beef, and made to sleep on the cold floor without blankets. They also forcibly tried to recruit us into the Russian Army, but we refused to sign documents. We were finally deported on November 14, 2025,” said Rawat, whose mother works with the Punjab Prisons Department.

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How a fake letter landed them in blacklisted Russian college

Asked why he went to Russia, Bhatti, showing the ‘fake offer letter of the Russian college’, said, “I am a qualified nursing professional, with a BSc nursing degree, but salaries in Punjab are too low. My application for a Canadian visa was rejected twice due to fewer bands in IELTS. The agent had promised that, along with the language course, we could work in Russia and earn a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh. But he cheated us. We discovered after landing in Russia that the country had no such rules.”

“None of the deported persons, hailing from Punjab and Haryana, who were duped, dared to file a police complaint, but four of us decided to take the legal course against the agents. If the Punjab Police fails to arrest them, we will take this fight to Delhi. Even Ludhiana police have slapped lenient sections against the agents in the FIR. The agents should be booked for attempt to murder and human trafficking,” Rawat, who paid Rs 3.80 lakh to the agent, said.

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Three other victims are Sahil Singh from Patiala, Ram Kataria from Nawanshahr and Gurjant Singh from Khanna.

“Several Indian men and women have been lodged in Russian jails. Agents also duped them on the pretext of dream jobs and good salaries. Many of them have even become mentally unstable. They are being tortured in Russian jails. There is no one to help them come out,” Rawat claimed.

According to the FIR, Sahil stated that he had left for Russia from Delhi on October 29 last. “The agent had said it was a direct flight to Russia, but he lied. The flight landed in Moscow after several layovers.”