Overview
- Hyderabad’s police chief asked the RBI to create a Joint Working Group with banks and police to review mule accounts, which are bank accounts used to move crime proceeds.
- He urged strict branch accountability, immediate audits of KYC practices, and reporting accused officials to the RBI for possible blacklisting.
- Operation Octopus 2.0 uncovered mule-account networks, led to 52 arrests across nine states, and pointed to collusion by branch staff in opening these accounts.
- The articles report no RBI response to the proposals yet.
- Banks were urged to deploy real-time monitoring for suspicious transfers, and people were warned about video-call “digital arrest” scams and the legal risk of renting out bank accounts.