'Beaten with iron rods, starved for 12 days & forced to drink toilet water': Dehradun youth endures brutal torture in Myanmar

DEHRADUN: Vidhan Gautam, 24, who was held captive in a scam call centre in Myanmar's rebel-held Myawaddy for two months, finally returned home to Dehradun on Wednesday evening. Gautam had gone to Thailand along with five others from different states on May 21, after being lured by a job agent who promised them a "high-salaried job in the country's IT sector".
However, instead, he was taken to Mae Sot district of Thailand bordering Myanmar and forced to illegally cross the border at gunpoint and work in the call centre run by alleged Chinese gangsters in the Myawaddy area of Myanmar.
“What I faced during captivity, I won’t wish for even my worst enemy,” a still-shaken Gautam told TOI at his home in Raiwala area of Doon on Thursday.
"Initially they had told us that if we refuse to work, then we have to pay them USD10,000 to be released. We didn't have that much money, hence were subjected to brutal torture that included electrocution, beatings with cane and iron rods, starvation for 12 days and being forced to drink toilet water... I had given up all hope of coming out alive and prayed to God for death to escape the pain," he said.
Gautam added that he refused to work in the scam centre after coming to know his job was to dupe men, mostly from Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, after contacting them on social media while pretending to be a woman.
Recalling how he ended up in the clutches of the scamsters, Gautam said that after landing in Bangkok on May 21, the local agents, all Thai nationals, asked them to sit in a minibus to "see their office in Mae Sot".
“We took it as a routine thing and sat inside the minibus… after travelling for a few kms, they asked us to alight and board two pickups. We again followed the instructions. The pickups took us to a riverbank where we were asked to board a speed boat. That is when my friend and I sensed something was wrong.
We refused to go ahead, following which, they threatened to beat us with iron rods and clubs. We were then forced to cross the river into Myanmar, where the first thing that we saw were teens armed with AK-47s pointing guns towards us,” Gautam recalled.
He added that they were taken to a complex with high boundary walls in an area called KK Park, where they were told point-blank that their job is to "scam people".
“When we refused to do this kind of work, they beat us with canes and said that we would be put on trial for seven days in which we would be made to contact unsuspecting men on Whatsapp while pretending to be famous female TikTok models,” said Gautam.
He further said before their 'seven-day trial period' could end in KK Park, on the third day, the handlers there told them that they were being released and they would drop them at Mae Sot in Thailand.
“Believing them, we sat in their car while being happy that we will go back to India now without realising our time in hell was going to start. Instead of Mae Sot, they dropped us in a huge complex with high barbed wire boundaries with over 200 armed guards in rebel-held Myawaddy.
The people there told us that we have been sold to them for USD 10,000 each. Either we work for them to scam people or pay them the same amount in USD to secure release. We begged them to free us... The pleas only fell on deaf ears and they then bundled us in a room with bunk beds. There were 12 individuals in each room with limited scope to sleep and eat,” said Gautam.
Recalling the brutal torture that they had to undergo, he said, "Some of us were locked inside toilets for two days. We were forced to drink toilet water. When given food after two days, we couldn’t eat it as it was just rice with pork or beef. We survived on some condiments (chutney).
They had also taken our mobile phones so that we couldn’t contact our families or the Indian embassy in Myanmar. Somehow, we managed to get a phone after paying a guard 3000 Baht (Thailand currency). With the help of that, we informed our families about our condition and the Indian embassy. Unfortunately, we were found out. After that, our torture escalated to another level."
He added: "Eight of us were taken inside a cell where our hands were tied to the wall. They then beat us with iron rods and canes for 4-5 hours continuously for 12 days. We were just given water with nothing to eat.”
On the 13th day, their abductors called their family members on video call over Whatsapp and demanded USD 5,000 for their release. “They would beat us over the video calls to make our families emotional... I just prayed for death to escape the pain," he said.
"Meanwhile, our families made all efforts to rescue us by contacting some agents. With their help, my family paid USD 2,000 to them after which they gave us food. Some officers of the Myanmar army also came there and asked them to free us citing the Indian embassy’s input. Finally, on July 20, I along with eight other Indians were freed by the abductors and handed over to the local police."
However, Gautam said that he would rejoice only when over 50 Indians held captive there were freed. “Besides Indians, at least 1,000 people from different nationalities including Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi and Moroccans are also held captive in the same centre, and some have been waiting for their freedom for as long as eight years.”
His mother, Ranjita, who had gone to receive him with his sister, Jia, 19, in Delhi, said, "Our happiness after getting him back is like someone getting a new life. We want the govt to bring back all the other Indians, too, soon."