Kochi | Police on Friday said it rescued from captivity seven persons hailing from outside Kerala who were brought here and made to pay Rs 30 lakh each by promising to get them jobs in Canada.
It also arrested one of the persons who was allegedly part of the human trafficking group that had kept the seven victims in captivity.
Those rescued were from the states of Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and in a weak condition when they were found, police said.
They were rescued from a rented accommodation near Cheranalloor here following an investigation based on a tip-off, it said.
After promising to provide them jobs in Canada, they were brought to the rented house where they were detained and threatened.
To make their families believe that all the victims had reached Canada, a flex with pictures of places in the foreign nation was put up as a background and their videos were taken by making them stand in front of it, police said.
The victims, all of whom had only studied upto class 8, were intimidated and made to say in the video that they had reached Canada, it said.
The videos were sent to the respective families to get money from them, it added.
One of the victims had escaped from the rented house recently, following which the accused, who were 11 in number, escaped with the money.
Following the police investigation, Abdul Rahim, a native of Siliguri, West Bengal, was arrested by the police from the Ernakulam South Railway Station and the victims' mobile phones, passports and around Rs one lakh were allegedly recovered from his possession.
Rahim was subsequently produced in court and remanded, police said, adding that it received information that the accused have committed similar frauds in other states as well.
The Cheranalloor police are investigating the matter with police officers from other states, it added.
