Faisal Khan aka Baba Vlogs, who led several Indians to Russian frontlines

Afsan, who became the second Indian casualty in the war, was sent to Russia by Khan. The two are said to have come in contact when Afsan approached Khan after watching a video that he had posted on his YouTube channel, Baba Vlogs. Khan also runs a manpower consultancy firm by the name of Babavlogs, providing services to send people to countries like Dubai, Serbia, Croatia, Germany and Singapore, among many others.

Khan, who is in his mid 30s, has been accused of duping people in the past too, and also found himself on the radar of the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) in a conversion case.

Speaking to The Indian Express from Dubai on Friday, Khan said that what happened to the people he sent to Russia was beyond his control. “I have sent a total of 35 people to Russia. I am also a victim here. I was told by the other agents and the handlers in Russia that these men would not be deployed on the front lines. What has happened after these men reached Russia was beyond my control. When I got to know that some of the men had been sent to the front lines, I desperately tried to get them back,” he said.

He also claimed that all the candidates sent by him were aware of the risks involved with the job and suggested that some of them may have been tempted to take up tougher and more dangerous assignments in lieu of increased remuneration.

“The contract explicitly explained the risks involved with the job. While they were not to be deployed on the frontlines, being associated with military work in a war zone does have risks involved,” Khan said.

“My intent has not been to dupe anyone and send them in harm’s way. If I was duping people, would I have left any trace? All my videos explaining about the work that people would have to do in Russia are still online and I have not pulled them down as I am not guilty,” Khan added.

A resident of Mumbai, Khan is a class 6 dropout and claims that his poor financial conditions made him take up work as a fishmonger in Dadar. In 2008, Khan headed to Dubai, where he worked as a salesman in various outlets.

After gaining experience there, Khan started the manpower consultancy service named Babavlogs in 2016, sending Indians to work in Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The same year, Khan started a YouTube channel by the same name.

He found himself embroiled in a controversy in 2018 after a 23-year-old Mumbai-based man, whom he had sent to Dubai, informed his family that he had converted to Islam. Khan was, at one point, questioned by the ATS about the man’s conversion, though no case was registered.

Khan subsequently started using YouTube to expand his business, putting out videos about the benefits of working in the Gulf. During this time, Khan is said to have placed a large number of people in various jobs and simultaneously faced accusations of duping people.

The main draw for Khan was the popularity of his videos, which attracted interested candidates. He currently has three lakh followers on YouTube. His most recent video was posted on January 8, about a “sure shot visit visa” to New Zealand.

Several families of men stuck in the Russia-Ukraine war mentioned Khan or his channel when recounting what led their loved ones to the frontlines.

While Khan concentrated mainly on sending people to Dubai, it was from October 2022 that he started sending people to other countries, including Armenia, Croatia and Singapore.

From July 2023, he started promoting job opportunities in Russia, telling people that they could work as delivery men and taxi drivers.

Gradually, he started promoting the benefits of working for the Russian Army, promising people a starting salary of Rs 40,000, which would be increased to Rs 1 lakh after undergoing three months of training.

“You do not have to fire a missile. There is no war happening here. The fighting is taking place at the border, which is where their army is. They need someone who can take care of the home front and need manpower for it. This work will be handled by you. Your work will be to clear demolished buildings. You will also need to take care of their arms and ammunition,” Khan says in a promotional video he put out in September 2023.

Khan has said that all those who take up the work after paying an initial fee of Rs 3 lakh to his company will be given a three-month training by the Russians and would henceforth be required to support their army.

He also promised new recruits a special government-issued identity card which could be beneficial either in getting a permanent residency in Russia or getting a Schengen visa for adjacent European countries. Nearly two dozen people, including Hyderabad-based Afsan, were allegedly sent by him to Russia.

Khan offered these services through three numbers that he shared on his website and channel. The numbers belonged to Khan, his partner Sufiyan, who also used to run a similar promotional YouTube channel that now stands deleted, and a woman by the name of Pooja.

“There is no risk involved. If it involved going to the border and firing guns, even I would not do it. I have myself gone and verified that it is safe,” Khan told prospective candidates in his videos.