
BHOPAL: Considered as the hub of cement industries in the country, Satna district in the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh is turning out to be a fertile base for mule accounts --which are being used not just to park and move money earned by cyber fraudsters, but also serving as route for transfer of funds of suspected terror financing.
Mule account refers to a bank account that is used to facilitate illegal activities such as money laundering and fraudulent transactions.
Focused investigations by cyber cell of the MP police based on specific inputs provided by the anti-terror squad (ATS) have led to a massive inter-state racket, which has been opening bank accounts in the name of downtrodden people after promising to credit benefits of various government schemes in those accounts.
The same mule accounts whose net banking control particularly is in the hands of the fraudsters (who got the accounts opened by posing as representatives of banks) are then being sold to cyber fraudsters across the country to park and route the proceeds of cyber-crime.
Detailed investigations have also brought to the fore a strong possibility of the same mule accounts also being used for suspected terror financing through overseas connections.
Around 400-500 such mule accounts have so far been traced, majority of which were opened by fraudsters in the name of low-income people residing in Satna district and neighbouring Jabalpur district.
Ongoing probe suggests that a monstrous sum of more than Rs 1500 crores has been routed by cyber fraudsters as well as suspected terror financers (having overseas connections) through the mule accounts opened in the name of people of Satna district of Vindhya region and Jabalpur district of adjoining Mahakoshal region of MP.
The 16 security guards of one prominent cement factory:
In December 2024, the MP ATS got the whiff of the mule accounts-aided cyber fraud and suspected terror funding racket, when 16 private security personnel (all from economically weak families) working at a prominent cement factory in Satna district, approached the local police.
The MP ATS shared with the cyber cell, inputs about possible presence of a massive racket, engaged in opening mule accounts in the name of people from lower socio-economic strata in Satna, Jabalpur and adjoining districts with the promise of crediting in those accounts, the monetary benefits under various government schemes, like Kisan Samman Nidhi, Old Age Pension Scheme, Sambal Scheme and Unemployment Allowance scheme.
One of the security guards, whose bank account was opened by the fraudsters checked with the concerned bank’s kiosk about his newly opened bank account’s details. He remained shocked to find that transactions worth lakhs of rupees had been done through the account opened in his name. Similar money trail was detected in the accounts opened in the name of the other security guards of the same cement unit in Satna district.
“Investigations brought to the fore that some local men from Satna district as well as some youngsters from Jabalpur district met the 16 security guards of the cement unit, while posing as representatives of banks. Subsequently, those men convinced the guards to open bank accounts which would enable the guards in getting benefits under various government schemes. Probe also revealed that while the accounts were opened in the banks using details of the security guards, the fraudsters who posed as bank employees/representatives got their own phone numbers entered in KYC documents to ensure that net banking access of those accounts (mule accounts) stayed with them only. Subsequently, those accounts were sold to cyber fraudsters in various states of India to park and rotate money earned through various modes of cyber frauds,” a cyber cell officer forming part of the ongoing probe told this newspaper.
Acting in the matter, the state police have arrested at least 23 men forming part of the mule account racket, which has its key players operating from MP, Delhi, Haryana and Telangana.
Most of the arrested men, including prime players Mohd Mashooq, Sajid Khan and Chanchal Vishwakarma hail from Satna district only.
Ongoing probe after the early morning MP police raid at a flat in a multi-storied building in Gurugram on January 7, had helped the unearthing of fake call center. As many as 14 laptops, 85 debit cards, five QR codes and one tablet were seized, which suggested that the mastermind Mohd Mashooq was running a call center there to dupe people.
A simultaneous probe by the MP ATS has thrown up strong possibility of the same mule accounts (which are being used by cyber fraud rackets to park and rotate the proceeds of their fraud) being used to route huge sums for terror financing. While investigations suggest that over Rs 1500 crore have been parked and routed through the mule accounts opened in the name of poor and low economic strata people, well worked inputs with the state police strongly points that major part of that sum could be actually destined for suspected terror funding with overseas connections, a highly placed MP police officer told this newspaper on Wednesday.
MP’s Satna district’s bond with mule accounts-cyber fraud and suspected terror financing dates back to 2017.
In February 2017, the MP ATS busted a Chinese SIMBOX enabled illegal phone exchange-aided ISI spying ring. Probe revealed that Pakistan’s ISI handlers were using Chinese SIMBOX enabled parallel phone exchanges at multiple dozen locations spread across India, including Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Satna districts of MP to dupe people via online and lottery fraud.
The money earned by the callers operating from Pakistan (whose identities were masked as calls converted into local GSM cell-phone calls by parallel exchanges) by duping people particularly in South and East India was parked in 200-odd accounts in 25-plus nationalised and private banks in Satna and Rewa districts of MP’s Vindhya region. All these bank accounts were managed by Satna-based Balram Singh (an ex-Bajrang Dal man) using the ATM cards of actual account holders. Pakistani handlers parked whopping sums in 2015 and 2016 in those mule accounts via Balram in return for commissions to the account holder.
The money parked in these accounts of banks in the two MP was later withdrawn by Balram and then transferred to the bank accounts managed by an old Delhi based terror financer, who subsequently routed that money to ISI spies (via a clutch of traders on both sides of the LoC) operating in bordering areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including Satwindar and Dadu, who were arrested in RS Pura sector of Jammu in 2016.
Two and half years later in 2019, the MP ATS was again in action in a similar case, by busting another suspected spying funding ring which was being guided by Pakistan-based ISI handlers. Three men, including Balram Singh (who was out on bail in the 2017 case), Sunil Singh and Shubham Mishra were arrested from their native Satna district for allegedly parking phone lottery and other telephonic fraud money in multiple bank accounts before transferring the money to bank accounts in other states at the behest of ISI handlers in Pakistan.
The phone fraud money which were being parked in multiple bank accounts in Madhya Pradesh and other states, including West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, was possibly being used by the Pakistan-based handlers to fund spying on India’s strategic interests which in the long run could have been used to wage war and terror activities against India.
The cell-phones seized from the arrested trio by the Satna district police contained at least 17 Pakistani phone numbers on which the trio was regularly making WhatsApp calls, Net calls, besides sending audio and video messages. They sent video messages to Pakistani handlers to greet the handlers of Pak Independence Day.
In a departure from the 2017 case, when Balram and his aides hired bank accounts of others (particularly poor people in return for monthly rent) to park and transfer the fraud money, the trio arrested in 2019 and their aides spread across the country, particularly in Satna and adjoining districts of MP and UP used their own multiple bank accounts to park and transfer money possibly to fund spying and also terror. Knowing well that parking major money volumes in accounts would bring them under IT Department radar, Balram and aides didn’t park more than Rs 50,000 in their accounts in Satna district, but instead regularly transferred money into bank accounts of other operatives of the funding racket operating in Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, which was then possibly routed to those spying in India at behest of Pak handlers. Balram and aides got 8%-10% commission from Pak handlers on each money transaction.