Jan Dhan accounts in Madhya Pradesh used to circulate cyber-fraud money; three held

BHOPAL: Once meant to bank the unbanked, zero balance bank accounts in Madhya Pradesh created under the PM Jan Dhan Scheme have now transformed into mule accounts for cyber fraudsters. Three individuals have been arrested so far. As many as seven bank accounts have been misused by fraudsters who have parked funds looted from crimes committed in other states. Five of these bank accounts are Jan Dhan accounts, including one account of a deceased person. How did the fraud surface? Recently, a daily wage labourer Bisram Ivne (40) approached the authorities, stating that transactions of around Rs 2 crore were carried out through his Jan Dhan account since June 2025. He came to know about it when he went to the bank to update his KYC details. We initiated a focussed investigation in the matter by the district polices cyber cell and the subsequent probe revealed transactions of around Rs 1.5 crore in the account since June, Betul district police superintendent Virendra Jain told TNIE on Saturday. Subsequent police probes, particularly based on some similar complaints, led the cops to six more accounts, four of which were Jan Dhan accounts in which transactions spanning between Rs 47.44 lakh and Rs 2.24 crore were detected, which brought the total sum to more than Rs 9.84 crore. Surprisingly, one of the Jan Dhan accounts in which suspicious monetary transactions were detected, was held by one Rajendra Varde, who is no longer alive. Another account with suspicious transactions was a student scholarship account held by 20-year-old college student Narmada Ivne. As the probe progressed it was found that the Rs 9.84 crore plus sum was parked in these accounts, which were being used as mule accounts. The sum actually represented the proceeds of cyber fraud cases done in other states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Haryana, SP Jain said. The money pertained to proceeds of cyber-crime, including cryptocurrency investment fraud, fake customer service centre related fraud and cyber phishing. Accused so far Further investigations took the Betul district polices multiple teams to two hideouts in Indore, from where three men have so far been arrested in the case. The arrested men include Raja alias Ayush Chauhan (28), who hails from Savligarh (Betul), his brother-in-law Ankit Rajput (32) and Narendra Singh Rajput (42). As many as 15 cell-phones, 21 ATM cards, Rs 28,000 cash and 11 bank passbooks of nationalized and private banks have been seized from the arrested men. The seizure has revealed that more than 20 more bank accounts were being used to park and circulate the cyber fraud money in different parts of Madhya Pradesh. Many of those accounts may well be Jan Dhan accounts, the SP-Betul said. Investigations have revealed the involvement of an ad hoc employee of one of the banks, who helped the inter-state gang in first getting access to the accounts, then changing the registered mobile phone number of each of the accounts, get new ATM cards issued and finally get access to internet-mobile banking for each account, particularly to get control of account whose holder had died. But the arrested trio is just one layer of the multi-layered racket, whose real players (backward and forward linkages of the racket) were operating from other states.