SAMBALPUR: The Sambalpur cyber crime and economic offences police station unearthed a cyber fraud of Rs 20.70 lakh involving mule bank accounts and arrested two persons in this connection on Saturday.
The accused are Jagdish Kumar (44) of New Delhi’s Narela and Ram Ashre (39) of Malkaganj. They were reportedly tasked with encashing money deposited into mule accounts and handing it over to cyber fraud gangs.
Police said a bank account at the Bamra branch of SBI in the name of Sunushi Agro Pvt Ltd was identified as a suspected mule account. On inquiry, the account holder, Achyutananda Patel, was found to be a victim of an organised cyber fraud racket, following which the police registered a case against the accused on Saturday.
The accused reportedly contacted Patel through WhatsApp after coming across his business on social media and placed a bulk order of 50 agricultural reapers last year. Eventually, between August 5 and 14, 2025, an amount of Rs 20,70,005 was credited into his account in 12 transactions on the pretext of business advance payments.
Subsequently, the fraudsters reportedly manipulated him into withdrawing and delivering Rs 13 lakh in cash and transferring the remaining amount to another account. They also convinced him to transfer Rs 7 lakh of his own money as well.
Additional SP Sasanka Sekhar Beura said, “The accused used a layered impersonation strategy involving business inducement, emergency-based emotional manipulation and impersonation of politically-connected and central agency-linked persons to exert psychological pressure. Further investigation is underway.”