Indian declared dead, forced to fight for Russia, alive: agent claims

Hyderabad: In the case of a man from Hyderabad who was duped of promising a job in Russia but was forced to fight for Russia in Ukraine and his family was informed of his death on Wednesday, the agents who recruited him told the family that he was alive, The News Minute reported.

Mohammed Afsan, who was working in a readymade garment shop in Hyderabad, was duped by a Dubai-based agent, he was confirmed dead by the Indian Embassy to his brother Mohammed Imran on Wednesday. But the agents recruited Afsan and told his family that they had located him and were trying to retrieve him.

Like many others, Afsan was cheated and forced to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine, TNM reports.

According to Afsan’s brother, Indian Embassy officials told him that Afsan is dead, citing information from Russian authorities. But he says that when he asked for any documentation of Afsan’s death, such as a postmortem report or death certificate, the embassy officials said that they only got a call from Russia.

Imran, Afsan’s brother, contacted the agents who recruited him, and they told him that the news of the death of his brother could be false. They further claimed that they found Afsan’s location and were trying to retrieve him.

Afsan’s family says that they are not sure whom to believe.

It was in November 2023, Afsan and two others went to Russia via Sharjah. When his family lost contact with him, they approached Hyderabad police as well as MP Asaduddin Owaisi. The MP appealed to PM Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to bring back 12 Indians who were forced to fight for Russia.

According to an earlier TNM report, it was a YouTube scammer who trapped many Indians to recruit into the Russian army. Most of the victims of the scam ended up in Russia through an agent named Faizal Khan, who runs the YouTube channel Baba Vlogs. Families of those who cheated alleged that he was deceiving them, offering security or helper jobs in Russia.

Afsan’s brother says that his family do not believe his brother's death, but if something of that kind happened, he requested the government to return his body.