CP Mohit Agarwal Orders Tighter Cyber Policing Against Mule Accounts and Fake SIMs

Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal used Monday’s cybercrime review at his camp office to push a sharper line: treat fraud as a network problem, not a single complaint, and keep every zone cyber desk on a 15-day reporting clock.

According to the commissionerate briefing, Agarwal told officers that policing in Varanasi has to keep pace with new fraud methods. Technical resources, cyber intelligence and faster field action should reach the full chain — from mule-account operators who open and run pass-through bank accounts, to people who issue fake SIM cards, run illegal call centres, or help withdraw fraud proceeds from ATMs.

Zone cyber in-charges were instructed to review complaints, investigation progress and pending cases every fortnight and send a clear progress note upward. The commissioner also pressed for quality disposal of National Cybercrime Reporting Portal matters rather than thin file closures.

Police figures shared at the meeting sketched the past year’s claimed results. Officers said 58 cyber gangs were busted and 277 accused arrested and sent into the judicial process. Fifteen illegal call centres were dismantled with 175 people arrested. On the portal side, 16,982 NCRP complaints were marked disposed. Financial action included a hold of about ₹25 crore on suspect funds and the return of ₹4.5 crore to victims after due process, the briefing said.

Digital-arrest style cases formed a smaller subset: 36 arrests in five matters, with roughly ₹1.20 crore in cash plus phones, four-wheelers and digital gear recovered, according to police. Separately, 10,176 mobile numbers and 8,262 device IMEIs were blocked to cut re-use of suspect handsets. Twenty-one arrested accused faced action under the Gangster Act. Teams also said 550 people lured by fraudsters were safely rescued, 17 four-wheel vehicles used in crime were seized, and more than 25,000 people were reached through awareness drives at schools, junctions and public places.

Those numbers remain police claims pending court outcomes. What Monday’s order adds is process: fortnightly zone reviews, explicit targeting of mule and SIM supply chains, and a push to treat call-centre and ATM cash-out facilitators as part of the same case map.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Neetu Kadyan, Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Pandey, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Crime) Nripendra, zone cyber in-charges, cyber nodal officers and police-station staff attended. Agarwal closed by asking for wider public awareness alongside faster victim relief and fund recovery — a dual track of prevention and case work that the commissionerate now wants measured every 15 days.

For complainants, the practical change will show up in how quickly a portal ticket moves from registration to bank hold and field enquiry. For zone desks, the 15-day review means fewer files can sit untouched between monthly crime meetings.

Residents who have already filed portal complaints will watch whether the fortnightly zone note translates into faster bank holds and earlier arrests of cash-out facilitators. Officers at the meeting were told that transparency in disposal matters as much as headline gang counts — a single well-built mule-account case can close a chain that ten thin FIRs leave open.