Bhojpur cyber police have arrested a man in Ara after allegedly finding that a mule bank account linked to him was used by a cyberfraud gang for transactions worth around Rs 2 crore in one month, with complaints connected to the account received from 12 states.
Ajit Kumar Singh, a resident of Dularpur under the Mufassil police station area in Ara, was arrested for allegedly providing the account to the gang. Police said the account was opened jointly by Ajit and his brother, Mahendra Kumar Singh, at a bank on Jail Road in Ara.
According to DSP-cum-Bhojpur cyber police station SHO Roushan Kumar, the brothers were approached by people posing as members of a gaming group. They were allegedly offered a commission of 1.5% for opening the account. The gang later took possession of the account documents, police said.
Ajit had received Rs 1.5 lakh as the first instalment of the promised commission, Roushan said at a news conference on Friday. Police have alleged that the account was subsequently used to route funds linked to cyberfraud complaints.
The investigation began after the Cyber Crime Security Unit in Patna received complaints from 12 states connected to the account. The complaints involved transactions of more than Rs 1 crore, according to the police. Bhojpur cyber police later received a list of suspected mule accounts from the CCSU in the latter half of October and were directed to verify them and take action against their holders.
During verification, investigators found that transactions worth around Rs 2 crore had passed through a single account in one month, Roushan said. The figure covers the account’s transaction activity identified during the police inquiry; the supplied report does not specify the number of victims, the total amount allegedly lost by them or the locations of the complainants.
Mule accounts are bank accounts made available to other individuals or groups to receive, transfer or withdraw money. In this case, police said the account holders were promised a commission and were allegedly induced to share account-related documents after being told that the arrangement involved a gaming group.
The case highlights the role of local account holders in cyberfraud investigations that span multiple states. The involvement of the CCSU and Bhojpur cyber police shows that the inquiry is being coordinated between a state-level cyber unit and district-level investigators, while the complaints themselves extend beyond Bihar.
Police are conducting raids to arrest other alleged members of the gang, Roushan said. A case has been registered at the Bhojpur cyber police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. The investigation and efforts to identify other people involved in the alleged network are continuing.
