Ranchi, Sept 17: The Jharkhand High Court has rejected the bail plea of a Mumbai-based travel agent accused of allegedly facilitating an international network that recruited Indian youths with overseas job offers and subsequently pushed them into cybercrime activities in Thailand and Myanmar.
A division bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Justice Arun Kumar Rai dismissed the appeal challenging the order of a special court that had earlier refused to grant bail to the accused.
The case relates to allegations that Indian youths were lured with promises of well-paid jobs abroad and subsequently taken to locations where they were allegedly made to participate in online fraud and honey-trapping operations targeting foreign nationals.
According to the case records, a Class 12-pass youth from a financially weaker family was allegedly offered a job in Bangkok with a monthly salary of Rs 70,000 through Telegram. He travelled to Bangkok on October 10, 2025, after receiving flight tickets and other travel-related documents.
The youth was subsequently allegedly taken by road from Thailand to Myanmar, where he came into contact with individuals suspected of involvement in cybercrime.He was later detained during a raid conducted by the Myanmar Army on October 18, 2025, and returned to India with assistance from the Indian Embassy.
An FIR was subsequently registered against several persons.The accused travel agent, Daud Ahmad, was not named in the original FIR but was later implicated on the basis of the statement of a co-accused.
Ahmad maintained that he was only a travel agent who had booked an air ticket and denied any involvement in the alleged criminal activities.
While considering the bail plea, the High Court referred to investigation material, including numerous WhatsApp conversations, which it said indicated the appellant’s alleged involvement in the activities under investigation.
The court also took note of alleged financial transactions between Ahmad and another accused, Sartaj Alam, recorded in the case diary.
The bench further observed that the investigation concerned an alleged network through which victims were sent to Thailand and Myanmar for cyber fraud and honey-trapping, with US citizens allegedly being targeted.
Although the original informant had been declared hostile by the prosecution, the court noted that other alleged victims were yet to be examined.
Considering the overall circumstances and the rejection of bail to a co-accused, the High Court found no grounds to interfere with the special court’s order and dismissed the appeal.
The court’s decision concerns the accused’s request for bail and does not by itself establish guilt, as the criminal proceedings remain subject to further investigation and judicial determination.
