Three men were arrested from Jaipur, Rajasthan, on Thursday for allegedly operating at least 43 mule bank accounts to help a cyber crime gang based abroad remit money duped from over 700 victims across the country, police said on Saturday.
The accused were identified as Saurav Kumar Meena, 27, an electrical engineering graduate from IIT-Jodhpur in 2022 and a resident of Jaipur, along with Abhishek Bishnoi, 20, a nursing student from Falodi, and Lakshman alias Lucky, 22, a Masters of Arts graduate from Nagor.
Police recovered 11 mobile phones, 40 SIM cards, 43 debit cards, 15 passbooks and seven cheque books from them.They added that detailed transaction records from banks have been sought to ascertain the total amount routed through the 43 accounts and identify the beneficiaries.
Their role surfaced after Cambodia-based cyber criminals allegedly duped a Gurugram resident of ₹3.13 lakh in a Telegram task-based fraud. An FIR for cheating and impersonation was registered at Cybercrime police station (West) on January 1.
Priyanshu Dewan, ACP (cybercrime), said the defrauded money was traced to accounts operated by the trio. “His only work was to operate mule bank accounts whose kits he used to receive via various sources including courier,” Dewan said about Meena, adding he received 30% commission and earned ₹7 lakh in three months.
Dewan said the money was converted into USDT (Tether) cryptocurrency and remitted abroad. Investigation is on to identify suppliers of mule account kits.