A caller from Pakistan told Vijay Verma his son Pradeep was ill in a Cambodian prison. The family's search has exposed how Indians end up jailed abroad.
The voice on the phone came from Pakistan. The caller identified himself as the father of another inmate, said his own son Sultan was locked up alongside Pradeep, and passed on a number to send $100 to so food could reach him. For Vijay Kumar Verma of Alwar, that call was the first confirmation in weeks that his son was alive.
Pradeep had left India for a job in Malaysia. An agent moved him on to Cambodia, where he worked for a company running cyber scams until a police raid put him behind bars. He has now spent six months in custody.
The chain of events began with the passport. As soon as Pradeep landed in Malaysia, the company took his passport and visa. On May 25, 2026, he called home to say he was heading to Sihanoukville in Cambodia for a chef's job at the Star Line Hotel. The next day he told his wife he was in serious trouble.
Then came a demand. On June 2, an unidentified man called the family claiming Pradeep was in police custody and asking for Rs 40 lakh to secure his release.
Two days later, a different voice reached them, this time from Andhra Pradesh. The caller said he had borrowed a phone from Pradeep and described how an agent named Vivek Tiwari had brought 15 Indians from Malaysia to the Star Line Hotel and sold them. Police picked them all up in early June. The caller was freed after a few days, but the rest, including Pradeep, stayed in prison.
Vijay reached Cambodia on July 12 and met his son at the Sihanoukville prison on July 14. Pradeep told him he was given one cup of rice twice a day and pumpkin juice, and that he had received 18 injections. Vijay has not spoken to him since.
The embassy has acknowledged a case against Pradeep and said proceedings can only move once it concludes. Vijay has filed a complaint with the embassy and informed the Ministry of External Affairs.
The agents who set this in motion remain untraceable. The number of the man who sold Pradeep is switched off, and the family has no information about Ronnie, who conducted the interview. Sarthak from Gorakhpur, who worked with Pradeep in Cambodia, said a man named Rajesh had called him to Malaysia, but does not know where Rajesh is from.
Pradeep is far from an isolated case. Eighteen people from Kerala, two from Tamil Nadu and numerous others from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are in Cambodian prisons, with families often refusing to speak out of fear of stigma.
Cambodia's interior ministry said 1,921 Indians were repatriated between September 2023 and September 13, 2026, of whom 575 were tied to scam operations.
