Patna: The consumer forum in Patna ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to reimburse the fixed deposit (FD) amount with interest to a customer whose deposits were withdrawn online through frauds.
The forum held that there was a "deficiency in service" provided by the bank, which did not inform the aggrieved customer before debiting the sum of Rs 6,28,496. It also directed the bank to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation for harassment and additional Rs 5,000 as litigation costs to the customer.
The interest amount was ordered to be calculated at a 6% simple rate for the period between September 23, 2021, when the complaint was filed, and the date of actual reimbursement.
The order was passed by president and member of the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum of Patna district, retired Judges Prem Ranjan Mishra and Rajnish Kumar, respectively, and communicated on Wednesday.
The complainant, Manindra Kishore Singh, an advocate of the Patna High Court, opened six term fixed deposits (TFD) in the SBI branch operating from the HC premises. On December 21, 2020, he fell prey to a fraud after receiving a call on his cellphone to share his user ID and password on the SBI portal for complying with the KYC update. The victim lawyer lost his savings, which were withdrawn through several payment gateways.
The complainant's counsel, Prem Parakash, argued that out of six deposits, four were operated manually through paper. Hence, without authenticating the demand by asking the customer, those TFDs were debited, which is the lacuna on the part of the bank's system.
Besides the SBI chairman, the managing director (digital banking) and the branch manager of the SBI branch were also party to this case.