Bank staff among 5 held in UP for routingcyber fraud money via Jan Dhan accounts

Agra: Five people, including a bank employee, were arrested in Mathura for allegedly routing proceeds of online fraud via dormant Jan Dhan bank accounts after changing the registered mobile numbers and issuing fresh ATM cards.SP (Mathura-crime) Avanish Kumar Mishra said, "The main accused, Neeraj Kishore, 24, was working as a contractual employee in the bank. He somehow accessed dormant Jan Dhan accounts opened in 2022 to facilitate the fraud. He used to quietly change mobile numbers in the system when bank employees were away from their desks for other work. Then, fake ATMs were issued and those cards were used for cyber fraud."The SP added Neeraj used SIM cards arranged by his associates, Pushpendra Singh and Aniket Singh, to change the registered mobile numbers linked to those inactive accounts. With the help of the other accused Mukul Singh and Vikrant Kumar, the ATM cards, cheque books and account details were passed on to another associate from Jaipur, Bhimu Chaudhary, who used the accounts to get the money.The gang also received a commission for every transaction and was paid around Rs 25,000 for providing each bank account for fraudulent use. Besides Neeraj, the four others arrested on Saturday were Mukul, Vikrant, Pushpendra and Aniket.An FIR was registered under BNS sections 318 (4) (cheating), 336 (3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will), 340 (2) (forged document or electronic record), 344 (falsification of accounts) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) along with the IT Act."The role of at least four more people have come to light, and efforts are on to arrest them. Most of them are from Mathura," the SP said, adding that a case was lodged in 2025, in which it was alleged that around Rs 1 cr was obtained by cyber fraud from several accounts.