In its cost sheet, the NIA stated it has uncovered a “well-organised community of traffickers and touts”.
| Photograph Credit score: PTI
“The Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) has filed a cost sheet towards three accused, together with an absconding suspected Chinese language nationwide, in a Myanmar-based human trafficking and cyber fraud racket concentrating on residents of the U.Ok., the U.S. and Canada,” officers stated.
In its cost sheet filed earlier than the NIA particular courtroom in Haryana’s Panchkula on Wednesday (February 18, 2026), the company stated it has uncovered a “well-organised community of traffickers and touts”.
“The accused — Ankit Kumar alias Ankit Bharadwaj, Ishtikhar Ali alias Ali and absconding Chinese language nationwide Lisa — have been charged below varied provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Part 24 of the Emigration Act,” the company stated in an announcement.
“NIA investigations revealed that the three, together with recognized and unknown associates, had been concerned in trafficking susceptible Indian youth to the Myawaddy area of Myanmar,” it stated.
The company, which had taken over the case from the Haryana Police, added that the accused had been concerned in varied unlawful actions starting from unlicensed recruitment of Indian residents overseas to the illicit switch of victims for legal operations in Southeast Asia.
Based on the NIA, Ankit Kumar and Ishtikhar Ali, who’ve been arrested, lured Indian youth by providing “respectable jobs” in Thailand and coordinated on-line interviews with Myanmar-based Chinese language nationwide Lisa.
“The victims had been deceived by presenting Lisa as a real recruiter and had been made to imagine that they might be offered safe jobs in Thailand,” the assertion stated, including that the accused organized transportation of the victims from India to Myanmar “illegally through Thailand”.
“On reaching Myanmar, the trafficked youth had been compelled to work in cyber rip-off firms,” the company stated. “They had been made to create faux social media profiles and have interaction with folks within the U.S., the U.Ok. and Canada to persuade them to take a position via fraudulent cryptocurrency apps,” it stated.
The NIA stated that “on refusal, the victims had been confined and coerced to proceed”, and had been additionally compelled to pay “hefty quantities for his or her launch”.
Revealed – February 19, 2026 10:41 am IST