Bihar Police Identify Over 100,000 Suspected Mule Accounts in Statewide Cyber Sweep

The Bihar Police have identified 1,09,475 suspected mule bank accounts operating across all 38 districts of the state as part of an aggressive campaign to dismantle organized cybercrime networks. Officials confirmed that the flagged accounts collectively hold approximately 72.53 crore rupees in disputed balances tied directly to fraudulent digital transactions and online scams. The massive operation represents one of the largest statewide financial investigations undertaken by the state's specialized cyber enforcement divisions.

The coordinated discovery was made following the rollout of the Cyber Prahar 5.0 campaign, orchestrated by the Bihar Police Cyber Crime and Security Unit. According to Inspector General of Police Ranjit Kumar Mishra, the initiative focuses specifically on mapping and neutralizing the illicit banking infrastructure that enables digital fraudsters to siphon, conceal, and move stolen capital. Investigators sifted through vast transactional datasets to trace the flow of illicit money routed through intermediary accounts.

Geographic analysis revealed that the suspect accounts are distributed across every administrative district in Bihar, though urban centers showed significantly heavier concentrations. The state capital of Patna led the list by a wide margin, accounting for 14,644 suspicious accounts. Significant clusters were also uncovered in major commercial and regional hubs, including Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Nalanda, and West Champaran, while smaller rural districts like Sheohar recorded the lowest counts.

Banking data indicates that criminal rings heavily exploited major public sector institutions to build their mule networks. Over half of the flagged accounts were concentrated in two of India's largest lenders, with Punjab National Bank accounting for 29,931 suspicious accounts and the State Bank of India holding 25,950 accounts. Authorities noted that the vast branch networks and deep rural penetration of these institutions made them prime targets for syndicates seeking to blend illicit transactions into high-volume retail banking traffic.

Mule accounts serve as a foundational pipeline for cyber fraud ecosystems, providing the temporary conduits necessary to launder money before it can be traced. In typical operations, scammers recruit account holders through small financial incentives, fraudulent job offers, or outright deception to gain access to their passbooks, debit cards, and online banking credentials. These compromised accounts are then used to layer transactions rapidly across multiple states, making it exceedingly difficult for victims and local police to track stolen funds.

The state's aggressive countermeasures come against the backdrop of a sharp spike in online financial fraud across eastern India. Official records indicate that Bihar logged 47,659 cybercrime complaints during September and October alone, out of more than 5.69 lakh complaints registered across India on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal. During this two-month window, fraudsters siphoned off more than 121 crore rupees from victims across the state, prompting the police headquarters to intensify its tactical response.

Despite the volume of attacks, state cyber officials reported measurable progress in intercepting illicit capital before syndicates could cash it out. Through rapid coordination between local cyber police stations and financial institutions, law enforcement successfully froze more than 36.94 crore rupees and refunded approximately 8.04 crore rupees directly to complainants. Police data showed that Bihar maintained a freezing success rate that outperformed the national average, reflecting improved technical integration with banking systems.

Law enforcement authorities cautioned that individuals who permit third parties to operate their bank accounts face severe legal repercussions, regardless of whether they actively orchestrated the scams. Police noted that students, daily wage earners, and vulnerable citizens are frequently lured into renting out accounts and SIM cards for modest commissions, unaware that they become legal accomplices under criminal and cyber statutes. Enforcers are now initiating formal proceedings and summoning registered account holders linked to suspicious transactions.

Moving forward, Bihar Police plan to sustain the momentum of Cyber Prahar 5.0 by deepening joint operations with financial regulators and telecom providers to sever the syndicates' operational links. In addition to freezing assets and pursuing criminal charges against organized operatives, authorities are expanding public outreach campaigns to educate citizens against sharing banking credentials, OTPs, or SIM cards. Officials emphasized that dismantling the mule account supply chain remains the most effective deterrent to crippling the financial viability of cybercrime networks.