Operation Mule Hunter: Jaipur South police arrest 17 cyber fraudsters, Rs 2 crore traced to mule accounts
Police booked 15 cases across 12 stations; cyber cell also recovered 430 stolen mobiles worth around Rs 1.5 crore.
Last Updated:
Cyber cell also recovered 430 stolen mobiles worth around Rs 1.5 crore.
Jaipur: Jaipur South police have arrested 17 alleged cyber fraudsters and registered 15 cases across 12 police stations under Operation Mule Hunter, a month-long special drive launched by the Rajasthan Police headquarters against bank accounts being used to route the proceeds of cyber crime. Another 31 suspects were taken into custody under Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) during the same period, between April 1 and April 30, 2026. Statewide, the operation led to the arrest of 48 cyber criminals, according to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Rajarshi Raj.
DCP (South) Rajarshi Raj said the syndicate operated by hiring bank accounts from individuals and using them to receive and move funds defrauded from victims. Around Rs 2 crore is alleged to have been transferred through such mule accounts in the Jaipur South area alone. The largest cluster of complaints surfaced at Shyam Nagar police station, where case number 174 of 2026 has been linked to 53 complaints registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP). A second cluster, at Sodala police station, has been linked to case number 180 of 2026, which corresponds to 41 NCRP complaints.
Cases under the Mule Hunter drive were registered at 11 police stations — Ashok Nagar, Vidhayakpuri, Sodala, Mahesh Nagar, Shipra Path, Mansarovar, Muhana, Narayan Vihar, Sanganer Sadar, Shivdaspura and Chaksu — with one FIR each, while four FIRs were lodged at Shyam Nagar. Among those formally arrested are Ajay Kumar Vijay (33), a resident of Shivshankar Vihar Vistar near Riddhi Siddhi Chouraha in Mansarovar, booked under Sections 318(2) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Shyam Nagar, and Lalit Kumar Saini (23), a resident of Prem Nagar Vistar in Sanganer, booked under Sections 318(4), 316(2) and 61(2) of the BNS at Sodala.
In a parallel campaign titled “Aapka Mobile Phir Se Aapka”, the Jaipur South cyber cell traced and recovered 430 lost or stolen mobile phones using the Centre’s CEIR portal and technical inputs from telecom service providers. The recovered handsets, traced across multiple districts of Rajasthan, are estimated to be worth approximately Rs 1.5 crore. Officers said the devices were returned to their owners during the drive.
Mahesh Nagar police separately busted a gang that allegedly used minors to pick mobile phones from shoppers in vegetable markets and crowded haats. Police said the accused would station an autorickshaw at the edge of a busy market, send a child into the crowd with an empty bag, and use the bag as cover to pull mobiles from the pockets of unsuspecting buyers. One accused, Dilwar Kumar Mandal, son of Arjun Lal Mandal — originally from Mina Bazar, Maharajpur, in Sahibganj district of Jharkhand and currently residing in Malviya Nagar Kachi Basti — was arrested under Sections 303(2) and 112(2) of the BNS and Section 83(2) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 in case number 207 of 2026 at Mahesh Nagar police station, with seven mobile phones recovered. A second accused was held by Jyoti Nagar police in case number 111 of 2026 for allegedly picking pockets in the crowd at an Indian Premier League match, with five more mobile phones recovered. Investigators are tracing the remaining members of the gang.
According to the DCP (south), the cyber cell has, up to April 2026, frozen Rs 2,73,30,340 on the cyber portal in complaints filed in Jaipur South, of which Rs 20,08,742 has been refunded to victims’ accounts. The cyber awareness wing has also reached more than 3,000 people through outreach programmes at 10 schools and colleges during the same period.
The operation was carried out under the supervision of DCP (South) Rajarshi Raj, IPS, with Additional DCP Lalit Kishor Sharma, RPS, and Assistant Commissioners of Police Aditya Kankde (Mansarovar), Sunil Sharma (Sodala), Balaram Choudhary (Ashok Nagar) and Bhawani Singh (Chaksu) overseeing the field teams led by station house officers and the Jaipur South cyber cell head, Head Constable Lokesh Kumar.
