Five youths from Karimnagar, who were allegedly kept in confinement by a cyber crime gang headed by some Chinese nationals in Cambodia for the past few weeks, returned to Karimnagar on Thursday with the help of the Karimnagar police.
The five youths were identified as Shahbaz Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Saleem, Hazibaba, and Naveed Abdul.
Lured by promise of Data Entry Operator (DTP) jobs in Cambodia, the youths from the town had gone to the Southeast Asian nation through a local Agent identified as Mehnaz Ali and his accomplice Abdullah of Delhi a couple of weeks ago in search of greener postures, sources said.
Their hopes got shattered when they realised that they were landed in the clutches of a cyber crime gang, which exerted pressure on them to do Cyber Crimes including online frauds. When they refused to do so, the gang members allegedly held them in captivity and subjected them to constant harassment.
Unable to bear the torment, one of the youths managed to make a video call to his family members in Karimnagar and narrated their ordeal and deception by the local agent about two weeks ago.
Anxious family members of the youth subsequently approached Karimnagar Police Commissioner V Satyanarayana, who in turn constituted a special team, which swiftly traced the local agent.
Sources said the local agent ensured the return of all the five youths from Cambodia by making payments to the ‘CASINO’ organisers based in Cambodia through online transaction.