Mumbai: A special court on Friday rejected the discharge plea of Sudarshan Darade, the alleged CEO of a company involved in an international human trafficking and cyber-fraud syndicate. The court ruled that there is “more than sufficient and prima facie material” to show Darade’s involvement in a sophisticated modus operandi that lured educated Indian youths to Southeast Asia, only to coerce them into conducting online scams under grueling conditions. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) opposed the plea, detailing how the syndicate recruited victims for the LongSheng Company in Lao PDR. According to the prosecution, job seekers were promised employment in Thailand, but were instead transported illegally to Laos on tourist visas. There the victims were allegedly forced to use fake social media profiles and hacked accounts to dupe people globally via fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. Special judge Chakor S Baviskar noted that Darade’s role revealed itself prominently through voluminous evidence. “If at all, he is not at all concerned with the alleged offences, he should not have received any of such mails from the company on his own gmail account,” the judge said.
