UPSC aspirant trapped in massive cyber fraud in Varanasi; One PAN, Rs 25 crore loan

Varanasi: A shocking case of cyber fraud has surfaced in which the PAN card of a UPSC aspirant was misused to take loans worth over Rs 25.59 crore, leaving a negative lien in his bank account. The fraud came to light when the student tried to make a small online payment of Rs 3,500 and his transaction failed. The victim, Anurag Mishra, who is preparing for the UPSC examination in Delhi, attempted to pay his library fee through Google Pay on January 17. When the transaction failed, he checked his account and was stunned to find that his ICICI Bank account showed a negative lien of more than Rs 25 crore.

A panicked Anurag immediately contacted customer care and later approached the bank branch. During the preliminary inquiry, it emerged that an unknown person had misused his PAN card to open a current account in Varanasi and availed loans worth crores in his name. The account was allegedly used to register a fake firm under GST and route financial transactions. Following the complaint, the cyber crime team swung into action. Cyber crime in charge Gopalji Kushwaha said a case has been registered on the complaint of Kamlesh Kumar Mishra.

Initial findings have raised suspicion of possible internal collusion at the bank level, which is also being probed. Officials said Anurag has no connection with the fake company and had never applied to open any current account in Varanasi. Despite this, loans running into crores and GST-related actions were recorded in his name, exposing serious loopholes in verification processes. The case has raised major concerns over cyber security and identity misuse.