Jagtial Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar introduced the four arrested members of the overseas fraud gang to the media in Jagtial on Friday. | Photo credit: ARRANGEMENT
Jagtial police on Friday (Feb 20) arrested four members of an interstate cyber fraud gang involved in trafficking youths to Laos on the pretext of overseas employment.
The accused have been identified as Islavath Vijayender alias Andrew of Obulapur Thanda in Mallapur mandal, Meesala Rajashekar and Dandugula Kalyan of Sarangapur mandal, Shyam Rao of Dharmapuri in Jagtial district and Raju of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The fifth accused, Raju, is currently in Laos.
Giving details of their arrest at a press conference in Jagtial on Friday, Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar said the main accused, Vijayender, had gone to Laos in November 2024 and joined a cyber fraud network operating in the country.
He was promised a commission of 13,000 yuan (approximately ₹1.75 lakh) for each person who was recruited and sent to Laos. Subsequently, he started recruiting youth from Jagtial and its surroundings.
The accused collected amounts ranging from ₹75,000 to ₹1,05,000 from each victim under the guise of “Call Center Jobs in Bangkok”.
The victims were initially sent to the Thai capital Bangkok for tourist visas and later smuggled across the border into Laos through agents, the SP said, adding that the victims were forced to work in cyber call centers allegedly run by Chinese companies.
Explaining the modus operandi, the SP said the fake social media accounts were created using the names of American influencers and are mainly targeting Indians living in the US for online financial scams. Victims who refused to cooperate were threatened and had their passports confiscated to prevent their return.
Published – 20 Feb 2026 21:13 IST