How did the fraud surface?

Recently, a daily wage labourer Bisram Ivne (40) approached the authorities, stating that transactions of around Rs 2 crore were carried out through his Jan Dhan account since June 2025. He came to know about it when he went to the bank to update his KYC details.

“We initiated a focussed investigation in the matter by the district police’s cyber cell and the subsequent probe revealed transactions of around Rs 1.5 crore in the account since June,” Betul district police superintendent Virendra Jain told TNIE on Saturday.

Subsequent police probes, particularly based on some similar complaints, led the cops to six more accounts, four of which were Jan Dhan accounts in which transactions spanning between Rs 47.44 lakh and Rs 2.24 crore were detected, which brought the total sum to more than Rs 9.84 crore.

Surprisingly, one of the Jan Dhan accounts in which suspicious monetary transactions were detected, was held by one Rajendra Varde, who is no longer alive.

Another account with suspicious transactions was a student scholarship account held by 20-year-old college student Narmada Ivne.

“As the probe progressed it was found that the Rs 9.84 crore plus sum was parked in these accounts, which were being used as mule accounts. The sum actually represented the proceeds of cyber fraud cases done in other states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Haryana,” SP Jain said.

The money pertained to proceeds of cyber-crime, including cryptocurrency investment fraud, fake customer service centre related fraud and cyber phishing.