Mumbai Police crack interstate racket using 'mule' bank accounts for cyber fraud

Mumbai police on Thursday arrested three agents accused of running an interstate racket that allegedly created 'mule bank account' kits for cyber fraud. The arrests took place near Sandhurst Road railway station. The accused are suspected of luring people with promises of earnings from online gaming, cricket betting, and casinos to open bank accounts, which were then used to channel illicit funds.

According to the Dongri police station, which registered the case, transactions worth approximately ₹25.45 crore were traced across 17 retrieved bank accounts over a period of roughly two months. The police have seized 110 bank accounts in total, but information from the respective banks has been received for 17 so far, revealing the high-value transactions.

The accused were identified as Nikhil Kamalkumar Jaswani (28), Rahul Shyamlal Parwani (32), and Jay Biharilal Teerthani (26), all residents of Madhya Pradesh. They have been remanded to judicial custody. Five more suspects are wanted in connection with the case, and three women sub-agents have been questioned and issued notices under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). They have been asked to cooperate with the investigation.

The police said the agents would target individuals in urgent need of money, offering them minor financial incentives to open bank accounts in their own names. The agents then collected the account holders' passbooks, debit cards, chequebooks, SIM cards, and other documents, which were used to facilitate financial transactions in cyber frauds.

The case has been registered under Sections 318(4), 317, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, read with Sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 66(c) pertains to identity theft, and 66(d) deals with cheating by personation using computer resources.

At least 38 cyber crimes registered across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, and West Bengal have been linked to these accounts. The seized materials include 42 bank passbooks, 70 debit cards, 36 SIM cards, 23 mobile phones, three laptops, one tablet, 12 bank kits, and one motor car, with a combined estimated value of approximately ₹50 lakh.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) Manish Kalwaniya stated that the agents allegedly prepared these mule account kits and were operating as part of a wider network. The police have expanded their investigation to areas including Govandi, Mankhurd, and Dongri in Mumbai, as well as Belapur and Panvel in Navi Mumbai, and Osmanabad, to trace more individuals and transactions linked to the network.

An in-depth financial investigation is underway to establish the source of the funds, transaction routes, beneficiary accounts, and the involvement of other individuals. The police have urged the public to be cautious of schemes offering easy money in exchange for opening bank accounts, as such accounts can be misused for illegal activities.