Abroad Job Promise, Link To Chinese Firms, Cyber Fraud Against Americans: How Two Indians Risked Their Lives Leading To Bobby Kataria's Arrest

'Kabootar Baaji' is an illegal way of human trafficking. Often, unemployed youth or those having foreign dreams land in such job scams. While Dunky is a way of sending human capital to different countries via illegal routes without proper documents, in 'Kabootar Baaji' or fake job promises, people are often sent to their destination using valid passports and visas and from there, they go missing or become untraceable. This was allegedly the case that landed social media influencer, Youtuber and Instagram fame Bobby Kataria in the soup.

Kataria was arrested after two men approached Gurugram police alleging that Kataria defrauded them of more than Rs 4 lakh in the guise of providing them jobs abroad. The complaint was filed by Arun Kumar, a native of Fatehpur, and Manish Tomar, a resident of Dholana in Uttar Pradesh. Both claimed that they saw Kataria's advertisement on Instagram and YouTube offering an opportunity to work abroad.

How The Fraud Unfolded

Arun and Manish contacted Bobby Kataria using the given numbers and met him in his office at a Gurugram mall. After taking around Rs 4 lakh from them, Kataria provided them with tickets to Vientiane Airport in Laos. They boarded the flight on March 28. 

"When we landed at the airport in Vientiane, we met a person named Abhi who introduced himself as a friend of Kataria. A Pakistani man then dropped us at a hotel. The next day, we were taken to Naotui station from there we took a taxi to Golden Triangle. From there, Nitin Sharma and Ankit Shokin, who claimed to be friends of Kataria, took us to an anonymous Chinese company, where we were thrashed and our passports were taken away. We were forced to commit cyber fraud targeting US citizens. Around 150 Indians, including women, had been brought there through human trafficking and were being held hostage," the duo claimed in their police complaint.

How They Escaped And Returned To India

The duo worked there for two days keeping quite fearing for their lives. On the third day, they got a little window to escape and ran for their safety. They headed to the Indian Embassy and narrated their ordeal. The embassy arranged for their return to India. "After returning, we asked Kataria to return our money, but he refused," the complainant said.

The Gururam Police registered an FIR against Kataria and others under Sections 323 (causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 420 (cheating), 364 (abduction), 370 (buying and disposing of any person as a slave), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 10/24 of the Immigration Act. After this, police raided Kataria's office in Gururam Mall and arrested him from there.

Bobby Kataria: Controversy's Favourite Child

 Kataria is not new to the controversy. In 2022, Kataria was arrested by the Delhi Police for smoking inside an aeroplane while a Dehradun court issued a non-bailable warrant against him the same year after he had shared a video in which he was seen drinking in public and blocking a road. Kataria faces another FIR for allegedly thrashing a woman, posting vulgar messages about her on social media and giving her death threats in 2022. He was also arrested in Gurugram for misbehaving with police personnel.