Mumbai Police have busted an interstate racket allegedly supplying mule bank accounts for cyber fraud carried out in the guise of online gaming, cricket betting and online casinos. The investigation found that more than Rs 125 crore was routed through just 17 bank accounts allegedly provided by the accused within a period of one to two months. Police said the operation exposed a wider network involving accounts used to receive and move money linked to cybercrime cases across multiple states.

The Dongri Police cyber cell has so far identified 110 bank accounts allegedly associated with the racket. Of these, 17 accounts have been linked to 38 cybercrime complaints or offences registered in different parts of the country. The cases have been reported across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal, according to police.

Three men from Madhya Pradesh have been arrested in connection with the investigation. They have been identified as Nikhil Kamalkumar Jaiswani, 26, Rahul Shyamlal Paraswani, 32, and Jay Bihari Lal Tiryani, 26. Police said five other suspects have also been identified and efforts are underway to trace them. The arrests followed an investigation into the movement of funds through accounts allegedly being used as intermediaries in cyber fraud operations.

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According to investigators, the accused allegedly targeted financially vulnerable individuals and persuaded them to provide access to bank accounts opened in their names. In return, the account holders were offered relatively small sums of money. Such accounts, commonly described as mule accounts, can be used by cybercrime networks to receive, transfer or layer funds obtained through fraudulent activities, making it harder for investigators to immediately identify the ultimate beneficiaries.

During the investigation, police seized 70 debit cards and 42 passbooks allegedly linked to the accounts. The recovery of these banking documents is expected to help investigators establish how the accounts were controlled and how funds were moved through the network. Police are also examining the transactions associated with the identified accounts to determine the full scale of the alleged operation and identify other individuals who may have benefited from or facilitated the movement of illicit funds.

The investigation indicates that the racket had an interstate footprint, with accounts connected to cybercrime complaints in at least 11 states and Union Territories. Police are continuing efforts to trace the five identified suspects and establish the roles of other people involved in sourcing or operating the accounts. The discovery of Rs 125 crore in transactions through 17 accounts within one to two months has highlighted the scale at which mule accounts can potentially be used to facilitate cyber fraud and move suspicious funds across banking channels.

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