Consumer court orders bank to refund Rs 2.4L lost to online fraud due to KYC breach
The court also directed
ICICI Bank
's branch on Rajpur Road to pay Rs 25,000 in compensation and litigation costs.
Merchant navy officer Ashutosh Vijan had filed a complaint with the Dehradun district consumer commission after his NRI account was compromised in an
online fraud
. On March 3, 2016, Vijan received an SMS about a debit of Rs 1 lakh from the account. He rushed to the bank but before he arrived, he received more transaction alerts.
At the branch, officials blocked his account and initiated action to recover Rs 5 lakh that had been transferred to other accounts.
The bank assured Vijan that the full amount would be restored within 30 to 45 days. However, the refund never came and Vijan returned to duty on his ship.
After 10 months of inaction, Vijan approached the consumer commission. He said the bank failed to carry out KYC on the accounts where his money was transferred. He also flagged the lack of a mandatory 30-minute gap between four back-to-back transactions totalling Rs 5 lakh, which were executed within 13 minutes.
The commission reviewed the documents and upheld Vijan's claims. It noted the absence of an internal investigation report from a senior official. It was found that all four beneficiary accounts were forged and had not undergone any KYC checks.
Vijan said the bank refunded only Rs 2.6 lakh, while the remaining Rs 2.4 lakh was never returned. The commission ordered the bank to repay the outstanding amount with 7% interest per annum from the date of the complaint. It also directed the bank to pay Rs 20,000 in penalty and Rs 5,000 towards litigation costs.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
3 minutes ago
- Hans India
Man held for cyber fraud in Gurugram
New Delhi: A 33-year-old man was arrested following a raid in Gurugram's IT Park for allegedly running a fake manpower recruitment company, officials said on Sunday. The accused, identified as Muneer Khan alias Sahil Sharma, was linked to 85 cybercrime complaints across the country. Police said the case stemmed from a theft complaint filed on May 22 in which the stolen iPhone was connected to the complainant's bank account. 'After obtaining a duplicate SIM card on May 26, the complainant received alerts for nine unauthorised UPI transactions amounting to Rs 3.98 lakh,' they said. An FIR was registered, and a probe was launched. In an official statement, police said that the team discovered Rs 1 lakh from the defrauded amount was transferred to an account in Telangana and then routed to another account in the name of Meraaki Manpower Services Private Limited. KYC verification of the company showed the registered address had been vacated. Persistent surveillance traced its functioning to Gurugram, leading to the arrest of Khan, a resident of Asoti village in Haryana's Palwal district, the statement added. Khan, a Class 12 graduate, had earlier been arrested in a rape case in Uttam Nagar and spent around four-and-a-half years in judicial custody, police said. He allegedly set up the manpower company along with associates Shubham, Mukim and Munjir to launder cybercrime proceeds through multiple current accounts opened in the firm's name. During the raid, police recovered 200 cheques of four banks and four debit cards linked to suspected fraud-related accounts. Data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) has linked the company's accounts to 85 cybercrime complaints from across India, involving amounts running into lakhs of rupees. The exact volume of fraudulent transactions is being assessed. Efforts to track down Khan's associates are underway.
India.com
3 minutes ago
- India.com
Noel Tata's mega plan, this company eyes Rs 70000000000 value of…, from ‘Aashiyana' in…
Tata Steel plans to double the gross merchandise value (GMV) of its homebuilding e-commerce platform 'Aashiyana' to about Rs 7,000 crore in FY 2025-26, a senior company official said. For the first time, the steel giant is also exploring the addition of non-Tata Steel products to broaden its range of offerings, the official added. 'All of the GMV on 'Aashiyana' currently comes from Tata Steel products, but we do plan to expand our offerings in the near future,' Tata Steel VP (Long Products) Ashish Anupam told PTI. Tata Steel Eyes Rs 7000 Crore GMV The platform recorded a GMV of Rs 3,550 crore in 2024-25, registering a 60 per cent year-on-year growth, and with the rollout of 'Aashiyana 3.0' – the newly launched version of the platform Tata Steel expects to double the GMV over the next one year, he said. Initially launched as a transactional e-commerce site, 'Aashiyana' has now evolved into a full-fledged content-to-commerce ecosystem designed specifically for individual home builders (IHBs) – a largely unorganised but significant segment of India's construction market, officials said. 'With 'Aashiyana', we are not just digitising the buying process, we are empowering individual homebuilders to make confident, informed decisions from blueprint to brick,' Anupam said. What Aashiyana Offers? The steel company said its upgraded platform offers over 300 curated home design plans, budget calculators, planning tools and AI-powered product recommendations. It also provides access to stage-by-stage construction guides, educational content across 31 topics, and omnichannel support through WhatsApp and chatbots. The platform has crossed 1.1 lakh registered users and seen strong uptake from the Indian diaspora. Orders have been placed from customers across 24 countries, led by the US, UAE and the Netherlands, the officials said. 'There's a growing interest among NRIs to build homes back in India for their families. 'Aashiyana' allows them to remotely plan and procure materials with greater confidence for their requirement back home,' he said. By offering tools such as material estimators, document vaults and visual inspiration boards, Tata Steel is aiming to position 'Aashiyana' not just as a commerce platform but as a homebuilding advisor, Anupam said. (With Inputs From PTI)
Indian Express
3 minutes ago
- Indian Express
PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Yellow Line, Bengaluru metro network expands to 96 km
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday inaugurated Bengaluru metro's Yellow Line covering a distance of 19km, connecting RV Road to Bommasandra via Electronic City. Modi also undertook a metro train ride from RV Road (Ragigudda) metro station to Electronic City with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, central ministers and other local parliamentarians and legislators. The Yellow Line has 16 stations and has been built at a cost of Rs 7,160 crore. The prime minister Sunday also laid the foundation stone of the Bengaluru metro's Phase-3 project worth over Rs 15,610 crore. The total route length of the project will be more than 44 km with 31 elevated stations. This infrastructure project is estimated to be completed by the end of 2029. Phase 3 will primarily serve underserved areas along Magadi Road and the western portion of the Outer Ring Road (ORR). According to sources, the 19-km ride on Bengaluru Metro's Yellow Line between RV Road and Bommasandra is likely to cost Rs 60 when commercial operations commence on August 11. Yellow Line operations will begin with three trains, stopping at all stations, running every 25 minutes. According to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) authorities, this will amount to around 72 trips in each direction daily, with 18 hours of service and a passenger capacity of around 2 lakh per day. The corridor runs through major tech hubs housing companies like Infosys, Wipro, Biocon, Delta, and Tech Mahindra, and will improve connectivity to residential areas, hospitals, educational institutions, and industrial zones on Hosur Road. It is also expected to ease traffic congestion at the infamous Silk Board junction. Credit war breaks out The inauguration of Bengaluru Metro's Yellow Line also triggered a political face-off, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar accusing the Union government of contributing very little towards the city's flagship infrastructure project, while the BJP claims otherwise. Siddaramaiah said the Karnataka government has borne 87.37 per cent of the cost for the metro, with the Centre's share being just 12.63 per cent. 'Although it was agreed that both governments would invest in a 50:50 ratio, the Centre's funds, other than equity, have come in the form of loans, which must be repaid with interest by the state and the metro corporation. This means the burden on the state is 87.37 per cent,' he said after the inauguration of the Yellow Line. He pointed out that the state has so far spent Rs 25,387 crore on Phases 1, 2, 2A, 2B, and 3, along with Rs 3,987 crore for loan repayment, totalling Rs 59,139 crore in allocations. The Centre, he said, has released only Rs 7,468.86 crore from its treasury. The CM appealed to PM Modi to increase central support, stressing that Bengaluru's growth is critical for the nation's economy. 'We request the central government to prioritise Karnataka just like it prioritises Maharashtra and Gujarat,' he said. Deputy CM Shivakumar reiterated the charge, stating that the state's share for Namma Metro was 80 per cent compared to the Centre's 20 per cent. 'The Centre was supposed to bear 50 per cent of the land acquisition cost for the metro, but it hasn't given. Yet, we completed the project in the city's interest. Bengaluru is the second-highest tax contributor in the country but gets very little in return,' he told reporters. Shivakumar also launched a direct attack on the BJP, saying no BJP MP from Karnataka had brought even Rs 10 in funds for Bengaluru. 'Some MPs (referring to Tejasvi Surya) think tweeting and media coverage amount to achievement. MPs must keep aside politics and work for the welfare of the people,' he said. He also accused the Centre of neglecting Karnataka, citing pending MGNREGA dues and a lack of tax devolution parity with cities like Ahmedabad.
