Rs 5 Crore Digital Fraud Racket Busted In Odisha’s Balangir; 2 Held For Mule Accounts

Balangir: Two persons were arrested in Odisha’s Balangir district in connection with a cybercrime racket that operated by opening fake bank accounts using Aadhaar details of innocent villagers and duping them of more than Rs five crore.

The arrests made by the police in in Balangir district on Friday exposed a large-scale fraud involving crores of rupees.

Blangir Superintendtnt of Police Abhilash G told reporters that the accused, identified as Debashish Kanti and Soumyaranjan Kabat of Chudapali village, collected Aadhaar cards from villagers and opened accounts in their names. They then controlled these accounts and used them to channel money from cybercriminals based outside Odisha.

Many bank passbooks, chequebooks, debit cards, POS machines, mobile phones, SIM cards, and a four-wheeler were seized from the accused. Investigations revealed that over 300 mule accounts were used for transactions worth crores, mainly through Balangir branches of UCO Bank.

Police said the accused reportedly received Rs 10,000–Rs 20,000 per account from cybercriminals for facilitating transactions. Many of these accounts were opened as current and business accounts, raising suspicion of collusion by some bank officials and employees. Police are probing this angle further.

Police urged citizens not to share Aadhaar, PAN, or personal documents with unknown persons. He stressed that cyber gangs exploit such details to commit fraud and launder money.