Three Arrested in ₹25.45 Crore Mule Bank Account Cyber Fraud Case in Mumbai
Mumbai police arrested three agents involved in an inter-state cyber fraud racket outside Sandhurst Road railway station on August 20, 2026. The accused allegedly created "mule bank account" kits used to funnel money from cyber frauds by luring people with promises of earnings through online gaming, cricket betting, and online casinos.
The arrested individuals were identified as Nikhil Kamalkumar Jaswani, 28, Rahul Shyamlal Parwani, 32, and Jay Biharilal Teerthani, 26, all residents of Madhya Pradesh. The trio has been remanded to judicial custody. Five other suspects remain wanted in the case, while three women sub-agents were questioned and served notices under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) requiring them to assist with the investigation.
A case was registered at the Dongri police station under Sections 318(4), 317, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, along with Sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) Manish Kalwaniya, the syndicate targeted people facing urgent financial distress, offering small financial incentives to open bank accounts in their names. The agents then collected their passbooks, debit cards, chequebooks, SIM cards, and other related documents to assemble mule account kits, which were subsequently used to process illicit cyber fraud transactions.
Police seized a total of 110 bank accounts during the probe. Bank records received for 17 of those accounts showed financial transactions worth approximately ₹25.45 crore executed within a span of 1.5 to 2 months. At least 38 cyber crime cases registered across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, and West Bengal have been linked to these accounts.
Officers also seized 42 bank passbooks, 70 debit cards, 36 SIM cards, 23 mobile phones, three laptops, one tablet, 12 bank kits, and a motor car, with the total seized property valued at around ₹50 lakh.
An in-depth financial investigation is underway to track the source of the funds, money routes, and beneficiary accounts. Police have expanded the scope of the investigation to Govandi, Mankhurd, and Dongri in Mumbai, as well as Belapur and Panvel in Navi Mumbai, and Osmanabad to trace further links to the network.
