India, June 11 -- A special court constituted under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday cleared the decks for the commencement of the trial in a case involving an alleged international human trafficking-cum-cyber fraud racket that lured Indian youths with fake overseas job offers and allegedly forced them to run online scams from Laos.

Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar framed charges against accused Jerry Jacob, Godfrey Alvares and Sudarshan Darade under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Emigration Act, holding that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against them. All three accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

According to the prosecution, the accused, along with several absconding associa...