Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio on Saturday directed the state’s advocate-general K.N. Balgopal to take urgent steps for the release of 45 youths, who were arrested in May and lodged in a Punjab jail.

According to media reports, the youths were among 155 employees of two Mohali-based fraudulent call centres arrested by Punjab police on May 14 and 15. The Punjab police had said that the “fake call centres” allegedly duped foreigners by making them purchase gift cards.

An official statement said that Rio discussed the issue of the youths' detention in Mohali jail in Punjab with the advocate-general in New Delhi on Saturday and directed the latter “to personally intervene in the case” and to “depute his team to take urgent necessary actions for the release of the innocent Naga youths who are falsely implicated in this case”.

Rio’s intervention comes a day after Helping Hands, Nagaland chapter, appealed to the NDPP-led state government to help the youths detained in Punjab. The NGO said the incident would have gone "unnoticed" but for one of its volunteers Neeraj Punj, who had revealed about detention of the Naga youths on non-bailable charges.

Punj, a volunteer with Helping Hands and a faculty of Punjab University, had earlier appealed to the Nagaland government to intervene on behalf of the youths. He was in touch with the families of the youths and also apprised newly-elected state Congress MP S.S. Jamir about the youths.

The state government had sent a SP-level official to Delhi this week to gather details about the case.