Ahmedabad: Gujarat’s Cyber Centre of Excellence has arrested Neel Purohit — alias ‘The Ghost’ — the alleged kingpin of an international “cyber slavery” network operating across Myanmar’s KK Park and Cambodia.
Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi announced that the state-of-the-art centre, built for Rs 500 crore, has cracked a global syndicate that lured Indian youth with fake overseas job offers and trafficked them into cyber-fraud factories run by Chinese mafias in Southeast Asia.
Officials said the operation was carried out under the directions of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, CID Crime DGP K.L.N. Rao, and Additional DGP Parikshita Rathod. The team arrested Purohit from Gandhinagar as he was reportedly attempting to escape to Malaysia. Two of his close associates—sub-agents Hitesh Somaiya and Sonal Phaddu—were also held, along with two other accused, Bhavdeep Jadeja and Hardeep Jadeja.
A court has granted a 14-day remand for Purohit. Investigations have revealed that Purohit ran a highly organised transnational trafficking network, managing more than 126 sub-agents across India while maintaining links with over 30 Pakistani handlers and more than 100 Chinese and foreign corporate HR operators who sourced manpower for cyber-fraud compounds.
Police said he had trafficked or facilitated deals to traffic over 1,000 individuals to Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand – often routing victims through Dubai, Laos, and Sri Lanka.
More than 500 citizens from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Benin and Tunisia were moved into cyber slavery through routes arranged by him.
According to the Cyber Centre, the accused used Telegram, Instagram and Facebook to lure victims with high-paying data-entry jobs abroad, seized their passports, and transported them illegally across borders—often through the Moei River into Myanmar’s Myawaddy region, a notorious hub for crypto scams, phishing operations, romance frauds and Ponzi rackets.
Victims were forced to commit cybercrimes under threats of physical and psychological torture. For each trafficked person, Purohit allegedly earned $2,000–$4,500, distributing 30-40 per cent to sub-agents and funnelling the money through mule bank accounts and multiple crypto wallets.
The arrest is significant as over 4,000 Indians have been rescued in joint operations by India, Thailand and Myanmar in the past three years. In their statements, several survivors named Purohit, helping investigators identify him as a key link in the global racket.
Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi congratulated the Cyber Centre of Excellence team, calling the crackdown “a landmark step” in protecting citizens from evolving cyber threats and criminal syndicates.
(IANS)
