Gang supplying mule accounts for cyber frauds busted, 3 held

He said the arrested individuals were identified as Gurjeet Singh, Raman Rai, and Sukhdev Singh, all natives of Jalalabad in Fazilka. They were operating from a rented room at Phase 5, Mohali, under the name “Brother Traders” to arrange and supply current bank accounts for cyber fraud activities.

Punjab Police’s State Cyber Crime Division has busted a gang involved in facilitating the opening and supply of current bank accounts, commonly known as mule accounts, to cyber fraudsters for routing, layering, and settlement of defrauded funds, with the arrest of three persons, said director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Friday.

Punjab Police’s State Cyber Crime Division has busted a gang involved in facilitating the opening and supply of current bank accounts, commonly known as mule accounts, to cyber fraudsters for routing, layering, and settlement of defrauded funds, with the arrest of three persons, said director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Friday.

He said the arrested individuals were identified as Gurjeet Singh, Raman Rai, and Sukhdev Singh, all natives of Jalalabad in Fazilka. They were operating from a rented room at Phase 5, Mohali, under the name “Brother Traders” to arrange and supply current bank accounts for cyber fraud activities. Police teams froze approximately ₹20 lakh in bank accounts linked to the gang. The cops recovered 23 ATM cards, two laptops, seven mobile phones, five SIM cards, forged bank/KYC documents, including 14 cheque books, Udyam certificates, six stamps, and cryptocurrency worth 5,100 USDT. 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.

Yadav said that during the investigation, it was found that the accused had been involved in such illicit activities for the past two years, earning approximately ₹50 lakh in commission by providing mule bank accounts to cyber fraudsters. “The bank accounts were opened using forged and morphed documents. To evade scrutiny, the accused rented a room in Mohali where they staged a fake business setup, including changing hoardings as required and keeping ayurvedic products to create the impression of a genuine enterprise,” he added.

Sharing details of the operation, special DGP (Cyber Crime), V Neeraja, said that action was initiated under ongoing operations against ‘domestic hotspots’ to prevent cybercrime. She said the investigation revealed that the accused persons were directly linked to Chinese nationals through Telegram, providing them with bank accounts and receiving profits in USDT cryptocurrency. “From inter-state linkages verified on the Samanvay portal of I4C, these mule accounts were linked to 24 cyber fraud victims, with an amount of ₹26.65 lakh placed under lien in those accounts,” she added.

The special DGP said that an investigation into the recovered ATM cards was underway to trace more victims of cyber fraud linked to this gang and uncover the full extent of the network. A case was registered on March 17 under Sections 318(4) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act at the police station state cyber crime, Punjab.