Hyderabad: City Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, IPS, called for a paradigm shift to counter mule accounts cyber fraud and rising financial crimes during a courtesy meeting with the Reserve Bank of India Governor and Deputy Governor Swaminathan at the RBI Hyderabad Regional Office on Friday.
Addressing senior RBI officials, Sajjanar highlighted the central bank’s critical role in protecting the hard-earned savings of citizens. At the same time, he stressed that closer coordination between law enforcement and banks was essential to curb mule accounts cyber fraud at its source.
The Commissioner described mule accounts as the “oxygen” sustaining cybercriminal networks. In particular, he urged the RBI to direct banks to deploy a mule hunter tool to detect and block such accounts early. According to him, fraudsters often lure students and daily wage labourers with commissions ranging from ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 to open bank accounts.
He explained that criminals siphon off funds from victims and route the money through these mule accounts within minutes. Therefore, Sajjanar proposed the creation of a dedicated centralised database to identify, monitor and track mule accounts cyber fraud patterns across banks in real time.
He also called for stricter implementation of know-your-customer norms and stronger due diligence by banks. In addition, he flagged procedural delays that slow down cybercrime investigations. To address this issue, he suggested immediate sharing of technical evidence by banks, including standardised bank account statements with complete transaction details.
Mule accounts cyber fraud dominates police–RBI discussions
The Commissioner further stressed the need for seamless coordination between banks and central agencies to tackle mule accounts cyber fraud more effectively. According to him, faster access to financial and technical data would significantly improve the ability of police to trace, freeze and recover fraudulent transactions.
Responding to the concerns, the RBI Governor said both the central bank and commercial banks had already taken several steps to reduce digital frauds. However, he added that authorities would continue to strengthen the payment ecosystem in response to evolving cyber threats.
The Governor expressed a positive outlook and assured that suitable measures would be considered to address the issues raised by the Hyderabad police. He reiterated the RBI’s commitment to improving safety, trust and resilience in digital financial systems.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crimes) M. Srinivasulu, DCP (CCS) Shweta and DCP (Cyber Crimes) Aravind Babu were also part of the police delegation during the meeting.
