Bihar Police trace over one lakh suspicious bank accounts linked to cyber fraud

Bihar Police have identified 1,09,475 bank accounts suspected of involvement in cybercrime across all 38 districts of the state, with a total of ₹72.53 crore deposited in them. Inspector General of the Cyber Crime and Security Unit, Ranjit Kumar Mishra, announced that action will soon be taken against these accounts under the Cyber Prahar 5.0 campaign. Patna leads all districts with 14,644 suspicious accounts, followed by Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda, and Bhagalpur. Police also plan to set up another cyber police station in Patna district to deal with rising cases. During September and October, under previous campaigns like Cyber Prahar 4.0 and 4.1, Bihar registered 47,659 cybercrime complaints out of 5.69 lakh complaints nationwide, while receiving 11.40 lakh fraud-related phone calls. Total cyber fraud reported in the state during this period reached ₹121.26 crore, out of which accounts worth ₹36.94 crore were frozen and ₹8.04 crore was refunded to victims. Nationally, reported cyber fraud stood at ₹3,503 crore, with ₹993 crore frozen and ₹57 crore refunded, which police noted shows Bihar performed better than the national average in freezing fraudulent funds. Earlier enforcement steps under these campaigns led to multiple arrests, including 19 people across two phases and six SIM card vendors, along with the blocking of 385 SIM cards and 442 mobile phones, plus the removal of thousands of objectionable social media posts and accounts.

Context

Mule accounts are bank accounts used by criminals to move and hide stolen money by passing it through multiple layers to block tracking. Law enforcement agencies across India track these accounts closely because they form the financial backbone of digital fraud networks. Campaigns like Cyber Prahar highlight how state police forces are ramping up digital surveillance and recovery efforts to tackle online scams.