CBI chargesheet in ‘cyber slavery’ case: Lured by Thailand job offer, two Rajasthan men forced into scam hubs in Myanmar
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari of Rouse Avenue Court took cognizance of the chargesheet on Tuesday and summoned Akhtar to appear before the court on February 17.
3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 5, 2026 09:04 AM IST
Victims from South Asian countries are allegedly lured by promising lucrative IT or data entry job offers in Thailand with monthly salaries ranging from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh. (File Photo)
Promising high-paying jobs in Thailand, conducting interviews over Telegram, and arranging travel to Bangkok — this is how two men from Rajasthan were trafficked to Myanmar and forced into cyber fraud operations, the Central Bureau of Investigation has alleged in a chargesheet filed in a Delhi court.
According to the CBI, accused Soyal Akhtar duped Akram Ali Bhati and Soyal under the pretext of lucrative employment in Thailand. The agency said Akhtar conducted job interviews on Telegram and arranged their travel to Bangkok, after assuring them that expenses would be reimbursed once they joined work.
The victims arrived in Bangkok on October 7 from where they were allegedly taken to Myanmar. There, the CBI said, their mobile phones were seized, communications wiped out and confined to the so-called “scam compounds”. They were allegedly forced to create fake social media profiles and cheat foreign nationals through online scams.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari of Rouse Avenue Court took cognizance of the chargesheet on Tuesday and summoned Akhtar to appear before the court on February 17.
“The clear involvement of accused Soyal Akhtar has surfaced in the offence of trafficking of victims, namely, Shri Akram Ali Bhati and Shri Soyal,” the Judge said in her order dated February 3.
The CBI, represented in court by Public Prosecutors Anoop Kumar and Saloni, also told the court that as per the Ministry of External Affairs, Akhtar had not been issued any Registration Certificate by the concerned Protector General of Emigrants (PGE), mandatory for recruiting agents under Section 10 of the Emigration Act.
Akhtar is currently in judicial custody and his bail was rejected by the court on January 23.
Story continues below this ad
As per the CBI, the two were subjected to unlawful confinement, physical and mental torture, and constant surveillance, until they were brought back to India in late October last year.
The two were among a large group of unsuspecting Indian nationals who were confined to “scam compounds” situated in Myanmar where serious cyber crimes, including digital arrest, romance frauds, and investment frauds were taking place, according to the CBI.
Victims from South Asian countries are allegedly lured by promising lucrative IT or data entry job offers in Thailand with monthly salaries ranging from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh. They are then allegedly ferried to the borders of Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Between January 2022 and May 2024, over 70,000 Indian job seekers travelled to these countries. The Indian government acted swiftly and managed to bring back over 1,500 Indians from these countries.
As reported earlier by The Indian Express, the repatriation of about 20,000 Indians is still underway. Police in Gujarat and Haryana have also registered cases and arrested individuals allegedly involved in a similar racket that trafficked job seekers into cyber slavery operations in Myanmar.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
X (Twitter): @Nirbhaya99 ... Read More
