The agency is probing recruitment agencies, including a prominent one in Delhi, besides those in Dubai, Mumbai and Chandigarh, and has carried out raids across multiple locations.The action comes in the aftermath of the death of two Indians on Russia’s border with Ukraine, who were promised decent jobs in Russia only to end up fighting for the Red Army.
A CBI officer told TOI that the trafficked Indian nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed at “front bases” in the Russia-Ukraine war zone against their wishes. Some of them also got grievously injured. Thirty-five such men have been identified till now, sources said.
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The probe found that the networks lured Indian nationals on the pretext of highly-paid jobs through social media channels.Those in CBI’s net are Suyash Mukut, director of 24×7 RAS Overseas Foundation located at KG Marg in Delhi; Rakesh Pandey, director of OSD Bros Travels & Visa Services Pvt Ltd in Mumbai; Manjeet Singh, director of Adventure Visa Services Pvt Ltd, Chandigarh; and Faisal Abdul Mutalib Khan alias Baba, director of Baba Vlogs Overseas Recruitment Solutions Pvt Ltd, Dubai.They have been listed as accused in the agency’s FIR. CBI was in the process of initiating arrest procedures late on Thursday.
Based on inputs from various sources, CBI had filed an FIR on March 6 naming private visa consultancy firms and agents found engaged in trafficking and launched an operation closely monitored by agency chief Praveen Sood. CBI teams then conducted simultaneous searches at 13 locations in Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Ambala, Chandigarh, Madurai and Chennai. “Over Rs 50 lakh cash, incriminating documents and electronic records like laptops, mobiles, desktops, CCTV footage have been seized. Searches are going on. Certain suspects have been detained for questioning,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.
“So far, around 35 instances of victims sent abroad have been established. The identity of more trafficking victims is also being established,” the spokesperson added.
CBI also appealed to people not to fall prey to such false promises of jobs by dubious recruitment agencies and agents.