As part of its campaign against cybercrime, the Chandigarh, Haryana Police have located 91 bank branches in the state where they believe cybercriminals are using “mule accounts” to conduct large-scale transactions. Among these, 26 branches are in Gurugram and 24 in Nuh district, officials said on 19 August 2025.

After identifying these branches, police teams have started a phased verification, inspection, and legal action, according to an official statement.

 To determine whether bank employees’ carelessness or collusion is aiding cybercriminals, special teams from the Cyber Crime Wing are thoroughly reviewing the records of these branches.

 According to the statement, “the teams are scrutinising lapses in KYC compliance, procedural violations in account opening, the role of bank employees, and any sign of negligence.”

Raids were carried out in the districts of Karnal and Yamunanagar on 19 August as part of the drive, during which time suspicious accounts were investigated and bank records were carefully reviewed.

 Teams from the Cyber Crime Wing located a current account belonging to a company in Yamunanagar that was formally closed in March but that subsequently carried out transactions totalling ₹43 lakh.

 The statement added that eight complaints have been filed against this account nationwide.

 In just three months, transactions totalling ₹2 crore were made on another current account that was discovered to have been opened on a fictitious address. 33 complaints have been made against this account nationwide.

“Account holders’ and the relevant bank employees’ roles are being scrutinised… This will not be a two-district operation. In the days ahead, other questionable bank branches will also be the target of similar raids, the statement said.

 On August 19, Shatrujeet Kapur, the head of Haryana Police, announced that a strong, multifaceted plan had been developed to combat cybercrime.

 According to him, this entails rigorous branch monitoring, prompt investigation of questionable transactions, frequent raids, and ensuring that banking laws are followed.

The DGP emphasised how important it is to keep citizens’ hard-earned money out of the hands of cybercriminals. He emphasised that bank officials and cyber nodal officers are held accountable because banks share equal responsibility with the police.

 Cybercriminals frequently impersonate bank employees, law enforcement officers, government agents, or representatives of reputable businesses to make fraudulent calls, send dubious links, or fool people into downloading dubious apps, according to Inspector General, Cyber Shibas Kabiraj.

 “Citizens must never share their OTP, ATM PIN, UPI PIN, passwords, or personal documents like Aadhaar and PAN in such situations, nor scan any unknown link or QR code,” he stated.

According to Kabiraj, banks and government organisations never call to request sensitive information or money transfers. “People need to be aware of new scams like ‘digital arrests,’ in which con artists use video calls to threaten victims while pretending to be law enforcement officers—something that no real police or agency ever does.”