HYDERABAD: The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has arrested a 30-year-old woman, a resident of Mumbai, for her alleged involvement in luring and sending job seekers to Cambodia to engage in cyber criminal activities.
According to the TGCSB, the accused, Priyanka Shivkumar Siddu, used to collect Rs 30,000 as commission from each candidate after processing their visa applications and sending them to Cambodia. The victims who included two individuals from Hyderabad, were subjected to severe physical and mental torture if they refused to engage in cyber crimes.
The accused woman had previously worked at a licensed overseas job processing agency named Maxwell, which has since been shut down.
Using the experience she gained, Siddu later started her own agency without a proper license, the TGCSB said, adding that since her agency lacked legal authorisation, she misled job seekers by offering visitor visas with the assurance that they would be converted to job visas at a later stage.
The TGCSB added that Siddu developed a connection with another accused, Narayana, who also operated a similar agency in Mumbai and travelled to Cambodia informing Priyanka about data entry job opportunities. He introduced her to another accused, Jithender Shah, alias Amer Khan, said to be the director of a Chinese-owned company named Zhan Zei.
It was then Siddu visited Cambodia to confirm the details and was offered commission for each candidate she sent. After returning to India, she processed visas for her sister’s son Akshay Vaidhya and his friend Danish Khan, who were the first two candidates she sent to Cambodia. After their arrival in Cambodia, the two were subjected to 12 hours of road travel, after which Shah explained the job to them involving cyber crimes.
Meanwhile, she advertised extensively through newspapers and social media, offering high-paying jobs in Cambodia that trapped two men, Vamsi Krishna and Sai Prasad, from Hyderabad. The investigation into Siddu’s involvement in sending others abroad for cyber crimes is on, the TGCSB said.