Pabitra Kumar Biswal (38) was an ordinary deputy bank manager at a co-operative bank. His appearance was nondescript: stocky in build, dark complexioned, with a receding hairline.
According to police, he lived in a rented 2-BHK in a middle-class society in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar on a salary of Rs 40,000. He was married and had a six-year-old son.
Last week, this rather ordinary man was arrested in connection with a cyber fraud amounting to crores.
Police are investigating his alleged role in enabling the flow of Rs 67-crore worth of cyber fraud proceeds through the accounts of the bank, officers said.
How it began
Police said Biswal’s responsibilities at the bank in Mayur Vihar had increased. The manager was nearing retirement and since March 2025, Biswal had been in charge of looking after the day-to-day operations at the bank.
“He had worked for over a decade at the bank, rising through the ranks to become a deputy manager. He was well-trusted by the management,” a police officer said.
In June last year, a man came to the bank. Biswal described him to the police as someone who looked like a ‘supervisor’ of a company. He was there to open accounts of some of his employees, who were with him.
“He made Biswal open three-four bank accounts for the ‘employees’. He then asked him to open an account for the company as well, Mahakal Enterprises,” said one of the investigators.
The owner of the company, Shailendra Kumar Yadav, was not there, Biswal was told by the man. But all his details, Aadhaar and PAN cards and degrees, were with him.
In his 10-plus years at the bank, police said Biswal had never seen so many accounts being opened in one go. This was good business, he thought, and could even seal his promotion as manager. The accounts were opened.
Between June and October 2025, police said Rs 67 crore flowed in and out of the account of Mahakal Enterprises. Initially, Biswal was buoyant.
“But by September, he started to sense that something was amiss. For a company that small, that much money was not natural…,” said a police officer.
But Biswal, police said, kept mum. He had allegedly not physically verified the company or the owner Shailendra, which is a violation of standard banking procedures.
Soon, police said the money caught the eye of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the account was flagged to them.
Police then started their search for the faceless Shailendra.
Scam unravels
When police managed to trace Shailendra to Mahakal Enterprise’s given address in Rohini, it turned out to be a modest house in a lower middle-class area.
Police knocked on his door and Shailendra answered. “But he had no clue about Mahakal,” said an officer.
Someone had stolen his identity.
Police said the 28-year-old worked a private job at a salary of Rs 18,000. He had no job till a few months ago.
Last year in April, armed with just a 12th standard degree, police said he started sending his CV to several job search websites.
“That’s where they (the scammers) got his details from. These websites are maintained by fraudsters, who sell the details further to create mule accounts,” said an officer.
Police took Shailendra and went straight to the bank. He was questioned before Biswal, and both of them denied ever seeing each other.
“The bank account was registered in the name of Mahakal Enterprises and purportedly belonged to Shailendra Kumar Yadav. However, when police traced and questioned him, he denied ever opening the account, visiting the bank branch or signing any account-opening documents,” DCP (East) Rajeev Ranjan said.
Investigators verified Shailendra’s claims and found that he was not at the bank when the account was created. The signatures on the account-opening forms did not match his admitted signatures either.
Police said the investigation then shifted to the officials responsible for approving the account. Bank records pointed to Biswal, who had verified and approved the application.
“During questioning, Biswal allegedly admitted that he had neither physically verified the firm nor visited the address provided in the account-opening documents. Investigators further found that mandatory KYC checks, customer due diligence measures and verification procedures had not been properly followed,” said DCP Ranjan.
According to police, those lapses enabled the creation of a mule account that was subsequently used to receive and route proceeds from cyber frauds on a massive scale. Two mobile phones were recovered from the accused.
The police are now searching for the man who came to open the accounts. All his details with Biswal have been found to be forged, and his phone number switched off, they said.
Accused Pabitra Kumar Biswal (38). (Source: Express Photo)
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