Jan Dhan accounts in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district have been hijacked and used as mule accounts to funnel nearly ₹9.84 crore linked to cyber-fraud cases across multiple states. Originally opened under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana as zero-balance inclusion accounts, several of these were quietly repurposed by fraudsters to route illicit funds.
The scam surfaced when daily wage labourer Bisram Ivne (40) discovered during a routine KYC update that close to ₹2 crore had passed through his account since June 2025, with police later confirming ₹1.5 crore in suspicious flows. Six more accounts showed similar activity, with transactions between ₹47 lakh and ₹2.24 crore, and five of the seven flagged accounts were Jan Dhan accounts, including one belonging to a deceased individual.
Investigators have linked the money to cybercrimes in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, and Haryana, involving cryptocurrency scams, fake customer care centres, and phishing operations. Three men — Raja alias Ayush Chauhan (28), Ankit Rajput (32), and Narendra Singh Rajput (42) — have been arrested, and officers seized 15 phones, 21 ATM cards, 11 passbooks, and documents pointing to more than 20 mule accounts.
A temporary bank employee has also been accused of helping the syndicate by altering registered mobile numbers, issuing new ATM cards, and activating access to dormant and deceased customers’ accounts. Police believe this racket is part of a wider multi-state network, and the case underscores how Jan Dhan accounts meant for financial empowerment are increasingly being exploited by organised cyber-fraud gr
oups.
