Jaipur: Documents of workers employed at resorts and restaurants in Rajasthan were allegedly used to open mule bank accounts and merchant payment channels through which a syndicate routed proceeds of cybercrime and illegal betting, Jaipur Police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Prashant Kiran said the accused, Vikas Dhaka, a resident of Basni village in Sikar district, was arrested from a flat in Vaishali Nagar, The Times of India reported. Dhaka had arrived in Jaipur around 20 days earlier, allegedly to expand the operation by setting up another chain of mule accounts and merchant networks.

Investigators allege that Dhaka and his associates targeted workers around Jaisalmer and Sikar, offering them money in exchange for their identity documents and KYC details. The documents were allegedly used to open current and savings accounts in private banks and payment banks, besides obtaining merchant QR codes through Airtel Payments Bank. The accounts and QR codes were then allegedly sold to cybercriminals and illegal online betting platforms for commissions. These are police allegations and have not been proved in court.

Rs 24 crore over two years, USDT and Dubai links alleged

Police said the accounts allegedly served as collection points for money generated through online fraud and betting. Rather than letting the funds remain in the accounts, the syndicate allegedly converted them into USDT, a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar. Police suspect the proceeds were liquidated through hawala and cryptocurrency networks in Dubai before being brought back into the Indian market as legitimate funds. Kiran said police have identified transactions worth around Rs 24 crore over two years — a figure that refers to transactions traced by investigators, not money recovered.

Police seized nine mobile phones, eight Fino Payments Bank debit card kits and Google Pay scanner rolls during the operation. Investigators are now tracing the agents who procured the identity documents, the operators of the mule accounts, hawala intermediaries and overseas contacts, and the investigation is continuing. What happens next depends on whether police can link the traced transactions to specific fraud victims and betting platforms, and whether more arrests follow among the alleged account operators and intermediaries.

Source: The Times of India