Jharkhand techie held hostage in Myanmar

The Indian Embassy in Myanmar has initiated efforts to secure the rescue and safe repatriation of a 26-year-old resident of Dhanbad who is allegedly being held hostage by a cyber-fraud network in Myawaddy town, officials said on Wednesday.

According to Shikha Lakra, team leader of the State Migrant Control Room under the Jharkhand Labour Department, the matter came to light after the youth’s mother, Nishat Afroz, submitted a complaint to the Chief Minister’s Office on November 12, stating that her son, Mohammed Shahzeb Rahman, was being tortured and threatened with death.

Afroz, a resident of Azadnagar in Dhanbad’s Bhuli area, alleged that operators of the cyber-fraud network had demanded ransom and threatened to kill Shahzeb and sell his organs. She said the family had already transferred over ₹4.4 lakh to the numbers provided by the captors after initially being told to send ₹2.2 lakh.

Lakra said Shahzeb, a mechanical engineering graduate who had been working in an IT firm in Bengaluru, was lured with promises of a lucrative overseas job and taken out of India in December 2024. He later managed to contact his mother through new WhatsApp and Telegram numbers, informing her on October 9 that he was being held hostage in Myawaddy.

Following the complaint, officials reached out to the Protector of Emigrants in Ranchi and the Indian Embassy in Myanmar. Embassy officials informed the Jharkhand authorities that the matter had been taken up with Myanmar authorities on priority.

However, the situation remains challenging, Lakra said, as Myawaddy is not under the effective control of the local administration. Afroz recently informed officials that her son had been moved to Yatai New City, a development that has also been relayed to the Embassy. Efforts are underway to expedite the rescue mission.

Fearing for her son's life, Afroz said, “My husband left long ago. Shahzeb is my only child. He took care of me, worked any job he could find, and supported my medicines. If something happens to him, I have no one left in this world.”