Police in touch with MEA, IB for safe return of Uttarakhandi hostages from Myanmar: SSP
Friday, 07 June 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The police are in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other agencies concerned to address the situation involving at least seven men from Uttarakhand and other parts of the country who are reportedly being held hostage in Myanmar, the Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said. He informed that a Raiwala resident Jiya Gautam met him on Wednesday and said that her brother Vidhan Gautam, who had gone to Dubai in March this year to work in the IT sector returned home in May with his seven other Indian colleagues.
In May, a Gujarat resident agent Jai Joshi approached her brother on a video call and told him and his seven companions that they will get a job in a big IT company in Thailand with a good salary. According to the complainant, all of them were screened through video calls for the job. He told them that they had been selected by an IT company in Bangkok that would also bear their expenses regarding shifting from India to Bangkok for work. She told the police that the agent Joshi took the eight men from Delhi to Bangkok on May 21 but after this, she could not contact her brother Vidhan.
On contacting the agent, he said that Vidhan was busy with his job due to which he could not talk to his family. She added that they were not able to contact the agent after this call. However, she said that she received a WhatsApp call from her brother after a few days and he said that the agent had cheated them. He claimed that they all were kidnapped from the Bangkok airport by Joshi’s associates at gunpoint. They were reportedly made to cross the border to Myanmar where they were being held as hostages. The complainant said that as per her brother, there were about 200 hostages from several countries including about 70 people from India that include 10 people from Uttarakhand. They were allegedly harassing the hostages into committing cyber fraud and killing those who failed to obey them.
The SSP said that the brother told his family that they would be killed soon if they were not freed soon as per the sister’s claims. He said that an FIR has been registered in the Raiwala police station and the police are making continuous efforts to bring them back safely.
