Overview
- CID-Crime’s Cyber Centre of Excellence detained Nilesh ‘Neel’ Purohit in Gandhinagar as he allegedly tried to flee to Malaysia, and a local court granted 14 days of remand.
- Purohit is accused of running a structured network that included more than 126 sub-agents, links with over 30 Pakistani agents, and contacts with HR networks at more than 100 Chinese and foreign companies.
- Authorities say he sent over 500 people from India and several other countries to scam centers in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, while India reports about 4,000 citizens rescued in three years.
- Victims were recruited via Telegram, Instagram and Facebook with promises of high-paying jobs, had passports confiscated, were smuggled to hubs like KK Park in Myawaddy, and were forced into phishing, crypto, Ponzi and dating-app frauds under threat and abuse.
- Investigators report commissions of roughly Rs 1.6–3.7 lakh per recruit with 30–40% paid to sub-agents, and transactions worth crores routed through mule bank accounts and more than five cryptocurrency wallets.