BHOPAL: Cyber fraudsters operating from Southeast Asia and targeting Indians are depositing their criminal proceeds into bank accounts opened in the names of business firms/NGOs existing only on paper.
A multi-layered international cyber crime racket being run from Cambodia recently used services of multiple interstate rings involved in opening and providing mule accounts to park Rs 1.34 crore extorted from a retired professor and wife from Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh by keeping them under digital arrest for 28 long days.
A probe has revealed that cyber fraudsters, possibly operating from Cambodia, who posed as Mumbai crime branch sleuths, first convinced the retired professor about a SIM card issued in his name and bank account operating in his name, having been used in laundering Rs 247 crore. They then extorted Rs 1.34 crore from them in November-December 2025.
“The fraud was reported to the Ratlam district police, only after the couple’s son came from Canada and found his parents had become victims of a massive digital arrest fraud,” a senior police officer in Ratlam district said on Sunday.
“A detailed analysis of the IP addresses used in the crime revealed a strong possibility of the digital arrest fraud having originated from Cambodia. Subsequent investigations led the SIT to multiple rackets in different states of India, that were providing mule accounts to the international racket,” Ratlam district police superintendent Amit Kumar said.
So far, the SIT formed to probe the case, has arrested 15 persons from six states, including five from Gujarat (Jamnagar and Ahmedabad), five from MP’s Jabalpur and Neemuch, two from Assam, one each from UP and Bihar and one from Jammu.
Importantly, a young woman based in Jammu has emerged so far as the nucleus of the mule account network in India in the concerned case. “As many as six mule accounts opened in MP, Gujarat, Bihar, UP and Assam, were used to park the Rs 1.34 crore extorted from the elderly couple of Ratlam district, before being transferred to the second layer of 64 more bank accounts, who details are still being extracted,” Ratlam district police’s cyber cell in-charge Amit Kori said.
The six mule accounts were particularly opened in private banks under the names of business firms and NGOs operating merely on paper. The bogus business firms which existed only on paper were shown in documents to have turnover, spanning between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore. The graduates, intermediate and high-school pass individuals who were shown to be directors or officials of the companies/NGOs were promised money out of the funds parked into those accounts.
In case of the mule account sourced from Jabalpur (MP), there were at least four men involved, including the account holder, a middleman, the persons who got the account opened in the private bank and the person who provided that account to the upper layer of the racket being run by the Jammu-based woman Sumiran Sharma.
It was learnt that the six accounts in MP, UP, Bihar, Assam and Gujarat, were not just used to park the money extorted from the elderly couple residing in Ratlam (MP), but other money of similar cyber crimes committed elsewhere in the country.
“In one of the accounts, Rs 1 crore was routed in a day, before being transferred into multiple accounts. Each of the six mule accounts arranged by the Jammu-based woman were used just for a day for parking the illicit money and transferring it into a second layer of 64 more mule accounts later,” SIT member, sub-inspector Jeevan Baria said.