Mule account syndicate busted, 10 in Delhi Police net
The Delhi Police have unearthed a sophisticated criminal network that allegedly supplied fraudulent bank accounts to cyber fraudsters across India, Dubai, and the United Kingdom over the past three to four years, and arrested 10 persons in this regard, officials said on Tuesday.
The incident came to light after a Patel Nagar resident filed a complaint alleging that he had been duped by fraudsters who lured him with fake online employment opportunities on social media platforms.
The victim was persuaded to transfer a sum of Rs 10,000 in multiple installments as job registration and account processing fees before the fraudsters severed all contact.
Investigators traced the financial trail and found that Rs 5,000 of the cheated amount had been routed through multiple layers into an Axis Bank current account opened in the name of a shell entity, “Damion Traders,” whose proprietor remained untraceable.
The breakthrough came with the arrest of field recruiter Mohit Soni on July 8. Technical examination of his records and digital profiling revealed the existence of an organised, multi-layered international racket that had been operating with alarming efficiency.
The nerve center of the operation was a rented premises in Shalimar Bagh, which functioned as a veritable “bank-kit factory.” Here, complete banking packages were assembled and stockpiled, including Internet banking credentials, debit cards, cheque books, passbooks, registered SIM cards and fake company stamps, the police said.
Digital evidence, including WhatsApp chats and cash deposit receipts, allegedly exposed the involvement of corrupt bank officials.
On July 20, the police arrested Kundan Kumar, a manager at Suryoday Small Finance Bank’s Gurugram branch, who allegedly accepted Rs 75,000 to facilitate fraudulent account openings.
The investigation simultaneously led to the arrest of four IndusInd Bank officials and associates from the Dwarka branch - Komakshi Sharma (bank manager), Payal Setia (deputy bank manager), Shristi (bank teller) and Chirag Bhatia (insurance agent associated with the branch). They were allegedly involved in facilitating accounts in exchange for cash kickbacks and insurance policy perks. Bhatia also allegedly routed illicit funds through insurance products to conceal the financial trail.
Financial analysis conducted during the investigation revealed the staggering scale of the syndicate’s operations.
According to the police, over Rs 70 crore was routed through 248 recovered bank accounts linked to 156 complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal across 19 states and union territories.
The police said they had so far frozen Rs 56 lakh during the investigation, while a sum of Rs 37 crore remains under dispute.
The police have issued a look-out circular against two key fugitives believed to be orchestrating the syndicate from abroad.
