Police write to MEA, NIA after Beed resident held captive in Myanmar

Written by: Express News Service

3 min readMumbaiJul 2, 2026 07:54 PM IST

The Beed cyber police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 26 against unidentified agents and individuals based on a complaint filed by the victim’s wife and launched an investigation. (Photo generated using AI)

The Beed police investigating the case of a 24-year-old local graphic designer, allegedly being held captive in Myanmar for over a month and forced into committing cyber crimes, have written to the Ministry Of External Affairs, National Investigation Agency (NIA) among others to intervene in the matter.

The 24-year-old who speaks to his family everyday over the phone from Myanmar has told his wife that nearly 700 Indians are kept there which includes 20-25 people from Maharashtra.

Beed SP Navneet Kanvat said, “We have registered an FIR in the matter and have alerted central agencies about the issue of the Beed native along with others stuck there. The Beed native had gone to Myanmar on a tourist visa and was working there.”

An officer from Maharashtra police said so far they do not have clarity on whether there are others from the state held there and their identities have not been established.

“Over the past few years several Indians who were duped into working at certain areas in Myanmar, Thailand Laos and Cambodia were brought back to the country. It is shocking that in spite of this, people are falling prey to such scams without verifying antecedents of the company offering them jobs,” the officer said.

He added, “In the case of the Beed youngster, he went there on a tourist visa and started working there. A proper company would not allow that. We appeal to youngsters to be careful about taking job offers from these countries without a background check,” the officer added.

The Beed cyber police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 26 against unidentified agents and individuals based on a complaint filed by the victim’s wife and launched an investigation.

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In the complaint, his wife said that on  June 1, her husband came across an advertisement for data entry and graphic designing work in Bangkok, Thailand.

On June 4, he left Pune for Bangkok. He told his wife that later he was taken to an isolated location on the Myanmar-Thailand border and took away his passport. He complains that he was made to work for 16-18 hours in cyber fraud. If he doesn’t meet targets, he is tortured, his wife said in her statement.

According to police, he even told his wife two or three captors who tried to stand up to the accused were killed.

On Thursday, former Maharashtra Minister Dhananjay Munde urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to secure the safe release of youths from Beed district and other parts of Maharashtra who were allegedly lured to Myanmar with promises of high-paying jobs and are now being held captive near the Myanmar–Thailand border.

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Munde submitted a letter to the Chief Minister, requesting the state government to take up the matter with the Central Government and the Ministry of External Affairs to ensure the victims for safe rescue.