Hyderabad: Three bank officials arrested for opening mule accounts for cyber fraudsters

Three senior bank officials have been arrested by Hyderabad Police. (Representational image)

Three bank officials were arrested by the Hyderabad Police for allegedly helping cyber criminals to open mule accounts in return for hefty commissions.

One is Shubham Kumar Jha, a deputy manager at RBL Bank Bangalore, Harun Rashid, assistant vice president at Axis Bank of Bangalore and Kata Srinivas, sales manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hyderabad, ANI reported.

The three bank officials are among the 52 arrested for cyber fraud in the past week. The arrests come after raids were carried out in eight states - Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Bihar - by the Hyderabad Police.

Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City, CV Anand told ANI, "DCP cybercrime Kavitha has conducted a wide operation covering 8 states in the last month- Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Bihar... 52 cyber criminals were caught and 3 of them were masterminds. 33 cases were detected in Hyderabad city, 74 cases in Telangana state, and 576 cases were detected in the entire country."

"Mainly they are trading frauds, digital frauds, investment frauds, and digital arrests... In these cases, a total amount of Rs 88.32 crores was lost. We could freeze only about Rs 3 crores through the banking process. Many mobile phones, chequebooks, PAN cards, and other such paraphernalia have been seized. Out of the 33 cases, three cases involve the activity of bankers... With the connivance of bank officials, fraudulent people could open accounts and then they could syphon off the money through mule accounts," he added.

A mule account is a bank account opened in the name of other people but controlled by cyber crooks. They use it for anonymous illegal banking transactions.

Hyderabad Police's probe into 39 mule accounts, following complaints from customers, revealed different violations that eventually led them to the senior bank officials. They created these accounts in return for hefty commissions of Rs 50,000 (for saving a/c) to Rs 80,000 (for current a/c), according to a Times of India report.