Rourkela police bust cybercrime syndicate, arrest 7 in mule account scam

Rourkela: Police in Rourkela on Monday busted an organised criminal syndicate involved in procuring and operating mule bank accounts for large-scale cybercrime and money laundering and arrested seven persons, including an employee of a private bank.The accused have been identified as Palash Ghosh, Aryaan Mahanandia, Waquar Khan, Vikram Singh, Ayaan Hussain, Akash Sharma, and Bipin Kumar Shaw.Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said the gang’s primary activity was opening bank accounts in the names of unsuspecting individuals — mostly from Rourkela and nearby areas — using forged documents and impersonation. These accounts were then sold or rented to cybercriminals across the country for routing fraudulent proceeds, layering transactions to obscure money trails, and laundering funds within the country and abroad.Investigations revealed that many accounts were opened with the connivance or negligence of bank staff, bypassing KYC norms. Shaw, 27, a bank employee, allegedly helped activate these accounts. “The involvement of more bank insiders is suspected given the volume of accounts opened without scrutiny,” Wadhwani said.The gang also arranged SIM cards and identity documents, charging Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 per account. These accounts were linked to multiple modes of cybercrime, including online gaming fraud, and have surfaced in over 200 cyber fraud cases nationwide, as per the Samanvaya portal of the ministry of home affairs.Acting on intelligence, a coordinated operation was carried out under the supervision of additional SP Shrabanee Nayak, involving teams from RN Palli, Plantsite, B Tarang and Sector-7 police stations.Police seized 80 passbooks, 50 debit cards, 10 Aadhaar cards, 20 PAN cards, 15 cheque books, 4 laptops and 25 mobile phones from the accused.