Patna Police have busted an organised cyber fraud racket allegedly operating in the name of the Prime Minister’s Mudra Loan Scheme and other government financial assistance programmes, arresting three accused, including a woman. According to investigators, the accused used fake Facebook pages and online advertisements to lure people with promises of easy government loans and collected processing fees from unsuspecting applicants.
The arrested accused have been identified as Akshay Kumar of Nawada district, Shivam Kumar of Gaya district and Rimjhim Kumari of Patna. Police seized 14 mobile phones, one laptop, one tablet, 15 ATM cards, five cheque books, four passbooks, seven SIM cards, three notebooks and ₹6.08 lakh in cash from their possession.
According to police, the Cyber Crime and Security Unit (CCSU) received information on the night of July 1 that an organised cyber fraud network was operating from a rented accommodation in Yogipur under the Patrakar Nagar police station area. Following verification of the intelligence, a joint team of the Cyber Police Station and CCSU conducted a raid and arrested the three accused.
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During interrogation, investigators found that the accused had allegedly been running the racket for nearly a year. They reportedly created fake Facebook pages and attractive online advertisements in the name of the Prime Minister’s Mudra Loan Scheme and other government welfare programmes to collect personal information from applicants through online forms.
The accused then allegedly contacted applicants while posing as representatives of a loan office. According to police, Rimjhim Kumari primarily handled phone calls, informing applicants that their loan applications had been approved. Victims were then asked to pay processing fees depending on the loan amount sought. For example, applicants seeking loans of up to ₹1 lakh were allegedly asked to pay around ₹2,000 as a processing fee.
Police said that after receiving the payments, the accused sent forged loan approval certificates to victims through WhatsApp, falsely claiming that loans ranging from ₹50,000 to several lakh rupees had been sanctioned. However, no actual loan was ever disbursed.
The investigation further revealed that the accused allegedly received the fraud proceeds through multiple digital wallets before converting the money into cash using Customer Service Points (CSPs). The cash was then intended to be deposited into different bank accounts. Police believe the ₹6.08 lakh recovered during the raid was part of these collections.
A preliminary forensic examination of the seized mobile phones and SIM cards found links to multiple complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). According to investigators, victims have been identified from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, indicating that the fraud network had an extensive interstate reach.
Renowned cybercrime expert and former IPS officer Prof. Triveni Singh said that cybercriminals frequently exploit the names of government schemes such as the Prime Minister’s Mudra Loan Scheme and subsidy programmes to gain public trust. He advised citizens to make any processing fee or official payment only through authorised government portals and verified channels, and to independently verify the authenticity of any social media advertisement, WhatsApp message or QR code before making payments.
