KOZHIKODE: Seven Malayalis who escaped from the clutches of a gang of cybercriminals in Cambodia are set to return home on Monday. The youngsters were lured into joining the company with a salary of Rs 1 lakh. Having endured torture for days there, they managed to escape on Saturday while being shifted to another place and later reached the Indian Embassy.
The embassy officials and the Malayali association members in Cambodia facilitated their return, via Malaysia.
Maniyur residents Abhinav Suresh, Arun P, Semildev P and Abhinand C, Kallayi resident Ashwanth Meethal, Edappal resident Ajmal, and Roshan Antony of Mangaluru first reached Thailand on October 3 via Bengaluru. A middleman, who was a friend and also a native of Maniyur, arranged their flights by offering them IT jobs in Thailand and collected Rs 1 lakh from each member. From Thailand, they were taken to Cambodia on the pretext that the company was located in that country.
“We reached Cambodia by a flight from Bangkok and started working with the company on October 7. Later, we realised that we were assigned to assist a fraud digital company. They were engaged in a lot of cyber crimes, like hacking and using fake websites to steal personal information,” Abhinav told TNIE from Kuala Lumpur.
When the youngsters refused to follow their instructions, they were tortured physically and mentally, he said.
“The security personnel beat us with electric batons and iron rods. We worked there till October 25. We managed to escape with the help of a taxi driver while we were being shifted to another place, and reached the Indian Embassy,” he said.
Their immigration process went hassle-free, with the money for flight tickets sent from the country. Vadakara MLA K K Rema said the issue came to the authorities’ notice on Friday when one of the youths secretly contacted his friend, Sidharth, in Canada.
“After the youngsters managed to escape, we have been following it up and with the help of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Malayali community in Cambodia, the flight tickets were booked. They took a morning flight out of Cambodia to Malaysia on Sunday, and from there, they took a flight to Kochi at night,” the MLA said.
Once in Kochi, their statements will be recorded by the police. In their complaints to the chief minister and other top officials, they are learnt to have said that they were sold to the Cambodian company for 2,500 dollars each. They have also mentioned the names of four Keralites who worked as middlemen offering them jobs in Thailand.
