HYDERABAD: People hailing from the state, who were rescued from cyber slavery in Myanmar, revealed that they were forced to work 18 hours daily without any off days.
The Indian government rescued and repatriated 540 citizens trapped in cyber scam compounds in Myawaddy, Myanmar, during a two-day operation on March 10–11. Among those rescued, 24 hail from Telangana. Subsequently, the TGCSB has launched an in-depth investigation into the matter.
Nine cases registered
Until now, 10 victims have filed complaints, resulting in nine cases registered at Cyber Crime Police Stations (CCPSs) across the state.
The victims, lured by intermediaries promising lucrative jobs abroad, were coerced into cyber fraud schemes targeting US nationals. Failure to meet scamming targets triggered brutal punishments.
“They started enforcing physical punishments that felt unbearable. One of the most difficult tasks was being forced to remain in a fixed position under the harsh sun for hours without moving. It was not only physically agonising but also mentally exhausting. They also made us perform frog jumps over long distances — sometimes up to 200 metres — pushing my body to its absolute limits. These practices felt completely inhumane,” reads a victim’s complaint.
According to another complaint, a victim told the police that since he was unable to meet their target for deceiving people, he was subjected to severe punishments. “They increased my working hours to 18 per day and took away my weekly day off. On top of that, they enforced unbearable physical punishments,” the victim alleged. “One of the worst punishments was being forced to stay motionless under the scorching sun for hours.”
Authorities are scrutinising the roles of domestic intermediaries who facilitated the trafficking.
Brutal punishments
The victims, lured by intermediaries promising lucrative jobs abroad, were coerced into cyber fraud schemes targeting US nationals. Failure to meet scamming targets triggered brutal punishments, they added. “They enforced unbearable physical punishments. One of the worst punishments was being forced to stay motionless under the scorching sun for hours,” one of the victims told police