A consumer court has given a big blow to the country’s largest government bank SBI. In a case of banking fraud, the court has asked SBI to pay Rs 97 lakh as compensation to the victim senior citizen customer.
Fraud of more than 60 lakh rupees
This case is from Hyderabad. A senior citizen couple had opened a savings account and FD account in SBI. There was more than 60 lakh rupees in their savings account and FD account. Their driver somehow gained access to transactions from both the accounts. After that the driver emptied the entire account and ran away.
In this way the matter reached the NCDRC
As soon as the matter came to light, the customer contacted the bank and complained to the branch manager. Later, he also lodged an FIR with the police. When the matter was not resolved, the senior citizen couple approached the RBI Ombudsman. After not getting the right response from there too, they decided to go to the Consumer Court. First the matter went to the Telangana State Consumer Commission, which later reached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission i.e. NCDRC.
Success after 6 years of struggle
Both NCDRC and Telangana State Consumer Commission ruled in favour of the senior citizen couple. After a long battle of about 6 years, the senior citizen couple got relief when NCDRC ordered SBI to pay damages. NCDRC asked State Bank of India to pay Rs 97 lakh as damages to the couple for this fraud.
Due to this, the irregularity of the bank was considered
Actually, the couple had given their driver access to view only the details of net banking. The driver stole the net banking credentials and activated the facility of transaction in his mobile by accessing their phone. After that, he redeemed the FD before time and fled after transferring the entire amount. The court admitted that there was a mistake on the part of SBI as well, which activated the facility of transaction on view only access without adequate verification. For this reason, it has been asked to pay compensation.
Also read: ICICI Bank alerts its crores of customers, they may be victims of SMS fraud, know how
