‘Krrish’ unmasked: How CBI trapped the ghost who ‘lured Indians to Myanmar cyber scam farms’

With just an alias to go by, investigators stayed locked on to their faceless target until they got their man moments before he could fly away.

Illustration: ThePrint Team

New Delhi: All they had was a name—‘Krrish’. But the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) kept at it, digging away to uncover cybercrime operations being run from Myanmar. ‘Krrish’ was the alias used by a man they suspected of running a racket that preyed on the desperate by first identifying those in need of jobs and luring them with promises of data entry roles in Thailand that paid $1,200 a month along with a fully paid relocation.

The bait was juicy, and many took it. Instead of the jobs they fancied, these hopefuls were trafficked to scam compounds in Myanmar, where they were forced into cybercrime operations designed for online defraud. They were kept in inhuman conditions, and under constant surveillance.

‘Krrish’ surfaced repeatedly in testimonies of ‘cyberslaves’ rescued and repatriated to India in large batches in March and November 2025. Yet, beyond the alias, there was little to go on with: no clear identity, no leads. ‘Krrish’ remained a ghost.

The breakthrough came from sources cultivated assiduously by the bureau. First, they got to know what he looked like. Then the CBI sniffed out his address in Kerala, and his full name—Nellathu Ramakrishnan Sunil. The trap, so long in the making, snapped shut. Investigators quickly tracked down his passport; the ghost was on the radar now.

‘Krrish’ was finally caught last week, picked up while leaving for Sri Lanka after spending a few days in India.

This isn’t the first crackdown on agents trafficking Indians into overseas scam networks. But unlike earlier cases involving scattered recruiters, this probe zeroed in on a single handler—‘Krrish’—whose name was mentioned across testimonies and was apparently sending people to Myanmar in bulk.

“Two names kept surfacing consistently in the testimonies of the victims we interviewed—Krrish and Neel. The latter was arrested earlier by the Gujarat Police. This arrest is significant as it opens a pathway to identifying not just the perpetrators, but also those executing these recruitments on a large scale. Until now, we only had access to the victims, not the people running the network,” a source said.

“He is a kingpin, and his arrest is likely to unravel much more. He is a key link in the chain,” the source added.

The harvest has begun. Following the arrest, the CBI recovered significant material from Krrish’s possession, including data on potential targets, details of individuals slated to be sent to these scam farms, and information on other agents operating across the country to recruit victims.

Based on inputs shared by victims, the Indian Embassy has also compiled a list of suspected agents, agencies, and companies involved in sending Indian nationals to scam centres in Myanmar. The CBI is now working to track the ones on the list, the source said.

‘Targeted American women, could use phone only for 2 hrs’

One victim on whose complaint the CBI registered an FIR naming Nellathu Ramakrishnan Sunil alias Krrish as an accused said it was Krrish who approached him with a job offer he readily accepted, given how lucrative it sounded.

The victim had posted on Facebook about his financial hardships and urgent need for employment. “Krrish tracked the post and contacted him on WhatsApp, offering a data entry job in Thailand. He arranged a tourist visa, booked his flight to Bangkok, and everything appeared legitimate until the victim landed there and was subsequently transferred to a scam compound, KK Park 4 in Myawaddy, Myanmar,” a source said.

According to the FIR, the victim was forced to engage in scam chats using scripts provided by the company, typically targeting American women aged above 45. “They coerced victims into persuading American women to invest in cryptocurrency. While he had been promised a salary of $900–1,200 per month, he was instead told he would be paid only 25,000 Thai Baht,” the source said.

The victim further told the CBI that employees at the facility were penalised for minor mistakes, and after such deductions, he received only about 16,000–17,000 Thai Baht per month in cash. “Inside the compound, he was kept under strict surveillance and harsh regulations. He was allowed to use a mobile phone for only two hours a day, and movement outside the campus was restricted,” a source said.

The rescued victim also told investigators that he was given access to dating app profiles to impersonate women and target male victims through scripted romance scams. “He was kept in inhuman conditions, subjected to physical and mental abuse, and lived in constant fear and deprivation,” the source said, adding that many such victims are still trapped in these compounds.

(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)