Withdrawal sans OTP: Bank told to repay

AHMEDABAD: A consumer court has ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to pay his customer from whose account an amount was withdrawn six times through electronic transaction and the account holder did not get any one-time password (OTP).
The case involved Sanjaykumar Shahu, 45, from Dwarka town. On December 29, 2020, somebody withdrew total Rs 30,000 from his account through PhonePe application in six transactions, each of Rs 5,000. However, Shahu did not get OTP even once. He came to know about the withdrawal when he tried to pay fees for his daughter’s studies on January 4, 2021. He contacted the bank and he was advised to lodge a complaint.
Shahu filed a police complaint also in this regard and approached the Jamnagar District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission alleging deficiency in banking services and demanding his lost amount back along with Rs 9,000 in compensation.
The SBI told the commission that the bank did not have to do anything with PhonePe and that the customer’s account was not linked with the application with the bank’s consent. The customer filed the complaint in order to extract money from the bank, though somebody else had committed a fraud on him. The transactions took place due to the complainant’s negligence, the bank submitted. The panel said that it cannot be believed that the bank was unknown to PhonePe link. In case of electronic banking transaction, it is mandatory for a bank to send SMS tone alert to the customer.
After holding that it was deficiency in banking services on part of the bank, the commission ordered it to return Rs 30,000 to the account holder. It also ordered the bank to pay Rs 5,500 in compensation towards mental harassment and legal expenditure.