The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau has taken over investigation of two major cybercrime cases involving an alleged mule bank account network through which more than ₹1,000 crore in suspected cybercrime proceeds was routed. Acting on directions from the state’s Director General of Police, following a request from Khammam Police Commissioner Sunil Dutt, both cases were transferred from V.M. Banjara and Sathupalli police stations to the TGCSB, which has constituted a Special Investigation Team under Deputy Superintendent of Police K.V.M. Prasad and re-registered fresh FIRs to begin a comprehensive investigation.
From a Single Job Complaint to a Statewide Network
The case traces back to December 24, 2024, when Modugu Sai Kiran, a resident of Thumburu village in Sathupalli mandal, filed a complaint alleging he had been promised a job in 2022 and persuaded to open bank accounts that were later used to route proceeds of cybercrime. Investigators say Udatneni Vikas Choudhary, his wife Boppana Nagapriya, associate Adapa Rama Venkata Charan alias Charan, and Potru Praveen were behind the scheme, which police say operated between 2021 and 2025, systematically targeting unemployed youth and daily-wage labourers in and around Sathupalli with promises of jobs, business opportunities and easy money.
Once accounts were opened, the gang allegedly collected internet banking credentials, cheque books and debit cards, paying between ₹3,000 and ₹10,000 per account depending on whether it was a savings or current account. The funds were then moved through linked mule accounts, converted into cryptocurrency for cross-border settlement, or withdrawn as cash. Investigators found the network had allegedly set up call centres in both Cambodia and Hyderabad in association with international fraudsters, targeting victims nationwide through matrimonial offers, reward points, gaming, betting, stock market investment and crypto trading schemes.
Arrests, an Escaped Bail Bid and a Widening Money Trail
Police first arrested key accused Potru Praveen in December 2024, before a coordinated operation on January 11, 2026 led to 18 more arrests. Prime accused Udatneni Vikas Choudhary, whose attempts to secure anticipatory bail reportedly failed, was subsequently detained, bringing the total arrests in the case to 20 by earlier this year, with six accused still absconding at that stage, including Meda Bhanupriya and her relative Meda Satish. Financial analysis of accounts linked to the accused had already traced transactions totalling ₹547 crore before the TGCSB takeover, a figure investigators now believe understates the network’s true scale considering the ₹1,000-crore total emerging from the latest re-registered cases.
A parallel case, registered separately at V.M. Banjara Police Station, involves the same core network, with an unemployed graduate alleging that between 2022 and 2024, Potru Praveen and his associates persuaded him to open bank accounts with HDFC Bank and South Indian Bank under the pretext of establishing an IT company and a firm called Extrika Solutions. A separate businessman complainant said Vikas Choudhary and Nagapriya convinced him to open current accounts for an interior decoration business in 2021, before an associate named Charan later persuaded him to open a further account for a supposed payment gateway venture in 2025, only for him to discover the accounts were being used for fraudulent transactions linked to cybercrime.
Part of a Broader Telangana Crackdown on Mule Networks
The Khammam case is one of several large mule account busts TGCSB has pursued across Telangana in recent months. In a separate operation codenamed Operation Crackdown 1.0, the bureau arrested 208 people, including bank employees, software engineers, lecturers and students, in connection with a ₹100 crore mule account network spanning nearly 1,549 linked FIRs statewide, with 19 individual bank branches found to have more than 20 mule accounts each. The recurrence of large-scale mule networks across different Telangana districts, and the involvement of bank employees in facilitating irregular account openings in at least one case, points to systemic gaps in KYC verification that investigators say organised cybercrime syndicates continue to exploit.
Prof. Triveni Singh, the former IPS officer and cybercrime specialist, said mule bank accounts have become one of the most critical enablers of organised cybercrime, since criminals rarely receive stolen funds directly and instead rely on accounts opened in the names of unsuspecting individuals to move money through multiple layers, making investigations significantly more complex. He urged the public never to open bank accounts or share ATM cards, cheque books, internet banking credentials or OTPs at the request of others in exchange for jobs, commissions or business opportunities, warning that even a seemingly minor lapse could expose an individual to serious criminal investigation. The TGCSB’s investigation continues, with officers examining banking records, digital evidence and suspected shell entities to trace the network’s full interstate and international links.
