Mule account network busted in Rourkela

Bhubaneswar: Rourkela Police on Sunday busted an organised cyber criminal syndicate involved in procuring mule bank accounts using the bank details of local residents and later provided those accounts to cyber criminals outside the State for laundering illicit funds obtained by duping gullible victims.

The police also arrested four persons — Ajay Kumar Sah, Sitanshu Kumar Swain, Siba Sankar Pattanayak and Prabhanjan Nayak — including three private bank employees of Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank who assisted in opening the mule accounts. All the accused hail from different areas of Rourkela.

The organised gang, which operates out of Rourkela, is mainly involved in the procurement and operation of mule bank accounts, opened in the names of local residents belonging to Rourkela and nearby areas, for the purpose of facilitating large-scale cybercrime and money laundering operations in and across India and abroad.

“The gang recruited unemployed youth and fellow petty criminals in jail and asked them to arrange bank accounts, activate SIM cards and identity cards of unsuspecting individuals. They often use forged documents and impersonation. Most accounts were opened with the tacit approval and complicity of bank staff, bypassing standard Know Your Customer (KYC) norms,” revealed the Rourkela Police.

They later sold or rented those activated mule accounts to cyber criminals across India, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Kolkata. These accounts are used as pass-through accounts to receive fraudulent proceeds from cyber crime victims. These accounts were rented or sold at a meagre amount of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per account.

In a major revelation, the Rourkela Police also claimed that the gang has some international links, which are under investigation. Given the volume of accounts opened with forged documents and without adequate scrutiny, the police also suspect the involvement of more bank insiders.

The police also revealed that this is the third mule bank accounts case being registered in Rourkela this year. More than 60 cyber criminals have been arrested by the Rourkela Police in 2025 alone.