Four men were arrested in Garden Reach on Tuesday with ATM cards from multiple banks, allegedly used to withdraw proceeds from online fraud.

A police officer explained that the cards were tied to mule accounts — bank accounts used to funnel money siphoned off through online fraud.

“These ATM cards are linked to accounts used by fraudsters to receive funds cheated from victims,” said an officer of Garden Reach police station, where the case was registered on Tuesday.

The four were arrested while allegedly on their way to hand over the cards to another group.

The police identified them as Sahinur Rahaman Fakir, 25, Sheikh Rahul, 20, Sheikh Asfak, 18, and Ashique Mistry, 19.

All of them are residents of Santoshpur, under Rabindranagar police station, and were travelling along Taratala Road in a red car, the officer said. They were intercepted near a waste compactor station in Taratala on Tuesday afternoon.

Based on their statements, the police arrested another group of three from a shopping mall in Howrah.

The first group was scheduled to hand over the ATM cards to these three, said the officer.

The trio — Sheikh Sahid Quadri, 20, Sheikh Alimuddin, 21, and Sheikh Firoj, 20 — are from Bhadrak in Odisha.

“What is clear so far is that these ATM cards are tied to mule accounts used to
move swindled money. We are contacting the banks involved to get details of the account holders,” said Harikrishna Pai, deputy commissioner (port division), Kolkata Police.

Police sources explained that in online fraud cases, stolen funds are routed through several accounts and e-wallets before being withdrawn from ATMs, often far from the victim’s location.

“For example, if someone in Calcutta is duped online, the money may pass through multiple accounts before being withdrawn in a different city to evade tracking. These bank accounts are opened using forged documents or with genuine ones from people unaware that the accounts would be used for fraud,” explained a Kolkata Police officer.

Racket kingpins often use intermediaries to transport ATM cards from account holders to those withdrawing cash — typically in another part of the country. Another set may be hired to deliver the cash to the kingpin.

“Kingpins avoid withdrawing the money themselves to avoid being captured on CCTV at ATMs,” the officer added.

The police suspect the seven arrested on Tuesday were middlemen hired to transport and use ATM cards connected to online fraud.

All seven were produced in court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody.