Srinagar, Aug 03: A total of 868 bank fraud cases were reported in Jammu and Kashmir over the last three financial years, involving Rs 322.31 crore, of which only Rs 12.8 crore, about 4 per cent, has been recovered so far, according to Reserve Bank of India data tabled by the Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The data was given in response to an unstarred question by MP G M Harish Balayogi on recovery and refund of defrauded amounts. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary gave the reply, citing fraud data reported by Scheduled Commercial Banks, excluding Regional Rural Banks, and All India Financial Institutions.
Year-wise, J&K recorded 467 fraud cases involving Rs 47.55 crore in FY 2023-24, of which Rs 3.23 crore was recovered. In FY 2024-25, the number fell to 298 cases, though the amount involved rose to Rs 81.27 crore, with Rs 2.65 crore recovered. In FY 2025-26 so far, cases fell further to 103, but the amount involved jumped sharply to Rs 193.49 crore, with Rs 6.92 crore recovered.
Fewer cases, bigger sums
The data points to a clear trend in J&K: even as the number of fraud cases nearly halved between FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25, and halved again in FY 2025-26, the amount of money involved rose more than four-fold over the same period, from Rs 47.55 crore to Rs 193.49 crore. This suggests a shift towards fewer but significantly larger-value fraud cases.
Recovery remains low
Across all three years, the recovery rate in J&K stayed under 7 per cent, and worked out to under 4 per cent cumulatively, Rs 12.8 crore recovered against Rs 322.31 crore involved. The ministry noted that the RBI does not maintain separate category-wise data on amounts frozen and refunded to victims, only the amounts recovered by banks through their own recovery mechanisms.
How recovery works
The government said there are no fixed timelines for recovery of defrauded amounts, given the complexity and multiplicity of agencies, tribunals and courts involved in individual cases. Banks pursue recovery through civil suits, Debt Recovery Tribunals, action under the SARFAESI Act, and insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal.
For cyber-enabled financial fraud specifically, the ministry pointed to the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which operates the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal and helpline 1930. Complaints filed their feed into the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS), which links State and UT police directly with banks to trace and freeze defrauded funds in real time, before routing recovered money back to victims through the Money Restoration Module (MRM).
Other measures cited
The government also cited the Central Fraud Registry set up by the RBI for early identification of fraud risk, the AI-based “MuleHunter” tool to detect money mule accounts, and the newly incorporated Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation (IDPIC) to detect and analyse fraud in the digital payments ecosystem in real time using AI, machine learning and big data analytics. Revised RBI directions issued on June 24, 2026, were also cited as limiting customer liability in unauthorised electronic banking transactions.
