MP: Racket targeting Jan Dhan accounts busted, three held

Betul, Nov 20 (PTI) Police in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district on Thursday claimed to have exposed a racket that allegedly siphoned off nearly Rs 10 crore from multiple Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan (PMJD) accounts.

Three persons have been arrested in the case, a senior official said, adding that the gang used the bank account of a deceased man to transfer the proceeds of crime.

Bisram Ivne (40), a resident of Khedi Sawaligad under Kotwali police station, visited the bank recently for completing Know-Your-Customer procedure, and was shocked to see transactions of around Rs 2 crore in his PMJD account, said Superintendent of Police Virendra Jain.

After Ivne submitted a written complaint to the Collector and SP offices, Cyber Cell Betul initiated probe and found that about Rs 1.5 crore had been transferred from his account since June 2025, the SP said.

The investigation revealed that fraudsters had siphoned off Rs 9,84,95,212 from the accounts of Bisram Ivne, Narmada Ivne, Mukesh Uike, Nitesh Uike, Rajesh Barde, Amol and Chandan at the same bank.

The account of a deceased man, Rajesh Barde, had been used for high-value transactions, the probe found. The fraudsters changed the mobile number linked to the account, procured a new ATM card, activated internet/mobile banking and intercepted OTPs, the SP said.

A temporary employee responsible for updating passbooks at the bank was found to have colluded with the gang and given them access to confidential customer information, the official said.

This facilitated unauthorised changes in documents, linking of mobile numbers, issuance of ATM cards and misuse of passbooks and cheque books, the SP said.

The accused prepared a complete kit for each targeted account, including linked SIM cards, ATM cards, passbooks and cheque books, and sent it to Indore by bus, where others executed major transactions to pocket money by duping people online, he said.

During raids, police seized 15 mobile phones with 26 SIM cards, 21 ATM cards, Rs 28,000 in cash, 11 bank passbooks, seven cheque books, two POS machines, 69 ATM deposit slips (showing Rs 21 lakh deposited), a Rs 48,000 deposit slip, two laptops, one router and four registers/diaries containing transaction records.

Raja alias Ayush Chauhan (28), a resident of Khedi (Sawaligad), Ankit Rajput (32) of Indore and Narendra Singh Rajput (24) of Indore were arrested in the case, the official said, adding that two Special Investigation Teams of cyber specialists tracked digital evidence and banking trails.

Forensic analysis of seized devices is underway and efforts are on to nab the other members of the racket, SP Jain added. PTI COR LAL KRK