Delhi Police has busted a cyber fraud network involving 37 alleged mule bank accounts that received Rs 7.36 crore linked to 99 complaints registered across India, and arrested six people, including a bank branch manager, they said on Friday.
The accused allegedly opened bank accounts using forged signatures and KYC documents obtained from unsuspecting daily-wage labourers, and converted part of the proceeds into cryptocurrency, they said. The investigation uncovered 17 suspected mule accounts at the Saraswati Vihar branch and 20 at the Tri Nagar branch of a private bank.
“The accounts were found linked to 99 cyber fraud complaints registered across the country, with a total of around Rs 7.36 crore credited into them. The case came to light during scrutiny of mule account data, when the Tri Nagar branch emerged as a suspected hub for opening such accounts,” a senior police officer said.
A preliminary inquiry into one account revealed that its holder, identified as Rahul, had neither visited the branch nor applied for opening the account. The addresses linked to two other suspected accounts at the same branch also could not be verified.
The officer further said that after the inquiry, police registered an FIR on June 17 and launched an investigation.
During the probe, investigators scrutinised 17 additional accounts at the Tri Nagar branch. Police found that the account holders’ addresses did not exist and that they had not captured photographs and KYC documents in person, raising suspicion of a larger syndicate involving bank employees and other accused.
“The technical analysis of registered mobile numbers, email IDs, devices linked to those email accounts and their connectivity trail led investigators to Mayank Kapoor alias Rinku (35), an alleged operator of the mule accounts. He was arrested from Baba Haridas Nagar in Delhi,” the officer added.
During interrogation, Kapoor allegedly disclosed that he arranged SIM cards in the names of daily-wage labourers and obtained their KYC documents and photographs by contacting them over mobile phones on the pretext of loan approval. The documents and photographs were subsequently collected through social media and allegedly used to open bank accounts.
The police said Kapoor contacted Shobhit Aggarwal (38), manager of the private bank at the Saraswati Vihar branch, who allegedly helped facilitate opening accounts without the account holders being physically present. It said forged signatures were allegedly made in their names.
Aggarwal later introduced Kapoor to Sushant Kumar, manager of the Tri Nagar branch. With the alleged assistance of bank employees, the accused arranged for around 17 mule accounts to be opened at Saraswati Vihar and 20 at Tri Nagar.
Police also found that sales team members Manoj, Ankur, Fatma, and Pankaj allegedly processed the accounts, which the two branch managers subsequently approved. The proceeds of the cybercrime were allegedly routed through these accounts, with a portion paid to Aggarwal and the rest converted into cryptocurrency, including USDT (Tether).
“After collecting sufficient evidence, police arrested Aggarwal and the four sales staff members on October 18... During searches, the team recovered a laptop, seven mobile phones, 11 SIM cards, seven cheque books, seven debit cards, Rs 60,000 in cash and approximately 150 grams of gold jewellery,” the officer said, adding that they also seized 63 Aadhaar cards, 60 PAN cards and 55 passport-size photographs belonging to different people, which were allegedly intended for opening bank accounts.