Inter-state mule account racket involved in cybercrime busted: Punjab Police

Chandigarh, Aug 21 (PTI) The Punjab Police's cyber crime wing on Thursday claimed to have busted an inter-state mule account racket allegedly involved in duping thousands of victims across the country with the arrest of four accused.

A mule account is a bank account used by criminals to receive, transfer, or launder illicit funds without the knowledge or sometimes with the complicity of the account holder.

Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said those arrested have been identified as Gautam (23), Ehsas (24), and Akash (20), all residents of Amritsar, and Anmol (21) from Fazilka.

Anmol is into operating mule accounts full-time, Gautam is unemployed, and Ehsaas runs a hotel in Amritsar on contract. Akash worked in a private firm for a brief period before getting involved in the cyber fraud racket.

Police have recovered Rs 10.96 lakh in cash, nine mobile phones, a laptop, 32 debit cards, 10 SIM cards, 15 bank passbooks and one cheque book from the four accused.

DGP Yadav said members of the racket used to obtain bank accounts, especially from the economically weaker sections, for a small amount, and then used those to layer and transfer funds acquired through cybercrimes.

"The accused were actively operating this criminal ecosystem for the past two years, using hundreds of mule accounts from different banks across Punjab to transfer illicit money abroad through cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and DCX," he said.

Special Director General of Police (Cyber Crime) V Neeraja said they analysed 6,000 mule accounts and shared the result with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

"Based on I4C's hotspot analysis, an FIR was registered against 300 mule accounts in Punjab Gramin Bank, and investigation traced 100 mule accounts to one location in Abohar," she added.

The investigation revealed that the accused were part of multiple cyberfraud groups on the online platform Telegram, with admins suspected to be from Southeast Asia managing the ecosystem, Neeraja said.

"The kingpins trained these local operatives on converting Indian currency into cryptocurrency. Anmol was the key supplier, sending mule kits via courier to his associates in Amritsar, who then activated internet banking services to facilitate the transactions. They received a 10-20 per cent commission," she said. PTI CHS NSD NSD