Negligence by

Bank on digital arrest case

Nagpur, 24 July

(HS): In a path breaking judgement Nagpur District Consumer Disputes Redressal

Commission has awarded compensation of the amount transferred under coercion and

threat through digital arrest.

The complainant was

digitally arrested on 8 January 2023 and threatened on phone. The caller from

FedEx Consumer Service, the caller informed her that an international parcel

has been booked in her name and the parcel contained two passports, five ATM

cards, 300 gms of weed and a laptop. When the complainant denied of having

booked any such parcel, she told to talk to Mumbai police and was threatened

that her identity was misused for unlawful activities. She was induced to

transfer Rs 95,449. Rs 3,07,539.50, Rs 1,90,000 and Rs 99,999 totalling Rs

6,93,437,50 into the some bank account towards investigation and processing

charges.

After a few days

of the last payment, she realised the fraud and immediately contacted the

consumer care services from which she had received the call. The bank advised

to report the matter to the National Cyber Crime Postal. Since the debit alert

relation to money transfers on her registered mobile number, the shadow credit

was subsequently reversed.

The complainant

approached the bank Ombudsman, who directed to credit an amont of Rs 1,75,000

to be credited to her account. The complainant had stated that the findings recorded

by the Ombudsman revealed that the beneficiary accounts belonged to another

branch and was used as money mule account.

The beneficiary

was a trader whose annual income was between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, while the

annual turnover was about Rs 40 lakh. There were no transaction in the account

for the last three months and suddenly witnessed transactions worth Rs 2.84

crore.

The Commission

observed that the opposition party failed to take necessary precautions for

protection and security of its account holder, which constitute deficiency in

service and negligence, which contributed to the fraudulent transactions

committed against her.

The complainant’s

counsel relied on RBI Master Guidelines relating to customer care.

Considering all the

facts the Commission held that bank guilty in exercising due care and granted

the complainant relief. The bank was directed to pay a sum of Rs 5,18,437 with

the interest at the rate of 9 per cent from 08.06.2023 (the date of fling the

complaint) and Rs 25,000 as compensation for physical and mental agony she has

suffered. The commission also directed to pay Rs 10,000 towards cost of the

proceedings.

The complainant

was represented by Adv Mahendra Limaye and the respondent bank was represented

by Adv P G Mewar.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar