A probe by the Pune city police revealed that bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana were allegedly used as mules in a cyber crime in which a Pune based 85-year-old man was duped of Rs 22 crore.
Police said this is one of the biggest individual cyber frauds in Pune. The victim, who is a retired industrial consultant now residing in Pune, is a native of Haryana. He lodged the first information report (FIR) at Cyber police station in Pune city on January 19, 2026. Police have so far arrested eight persons including mule account holders and mule handlers in this case.
Police said around October 25, 2025, online fraudsters contacted the victim, assuring high returns on investments in share market trading. The fraudsters then added the victim in a WhatsApp group called Special Training Team B.
The fraudsters also collected personal, financial details of the victim, while making him download a fraudulent application on his cell phone. Under the instructions of the fraudsters posing as stock market experts, the victim went on transferring money into different bank accounts as investment in share trading, hoping to get huge profits.
Police said between October 27 and January 9, the fraudsters received a total of Rs 22,03,22,22,742, through 80 online transactions, from the victim and wife’s account. The fraudulent application was showing that the victim gained Rs 45 crore. But when he tried to withdraw the money, the fraudsters demanded Rs 4 crore more. Police said the victim realised this time that he was cheated, only after losing his life savings in the cyber scam.
During investigation, police arrested Sunilkumar Surendra Singh (51) of Ambarnath in Thane, on February 6. Next day, Akash Marathe (27), Lala Umap (26), Parmeshwar Dabhade (23), all from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar district were arrested. Then, on February 11, police arrested four others identified as Sahil John Shrisundar (22), Vishwajeet Khandare (21), Abhijit Nade (21) and Dishant Kamble (22), also from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar.
As per a submission made by the police in court while seeking custody of the accused, the victim’s money was fraudulently transferred into seven bank accounts. Further, the money from these mule accounts was transferred to several other bank accounts. Police told the court that as per details obtained from National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), the seven mule accounts were used for approximately 80,000 fraudulent bank transactions.
Police further submitted that bank accounts of the accused Marathe, Umap and Dabhade were opened under the Pradhan Mantru Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) at the Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), University Branch, in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Police said they were probing Setu Centre in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, which was used to open the said PMJDY bank accounts.
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The police probe revealed that Umap and Dabhade gave their “bank account kit (ATM, Passbook, Internet Username and Password)” to Sahil Shrisundar, who further transferred the “kit” to Khandare, who again passed it on to Nade. Police said Nade gave the “kit” to Kamble.
Police have also found accused Sunilkumar’s “visiting card” in Nade’s possession. A probe is on to determine the financial transactions between all eight accused and whether they are part of a larger syndicate, police said.
Investigation into cell phone records of accused Sunilkumar and Marathe revealed that money received in mule accounts was withdrawn using ATM cards and further sent “forward” through “hawala” transactions, police told the court. Police are also investigating the CCTV footage obtained from different ATM centres from where the accused persons are suspected to have withdrawn the money.
Also, police said that some money received from the victim has been transferred to other countries, which is being investigated. Police are also investigating the mobile phone numbers and WhatsApp group used by the online fraudsters, who are yet to be identified. The police have managed to freeze Rs 3.28 crore of the total amount transferred by the victim.
