Punjab National Bank is again facing an uneasy situation. A person claimed that Rs. 75,000 has been withdrawn from his account without his concern in Gaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. He reported the police about possible fraud. After the police complain, the bank claims that the person himself withdrawn money from the ATM and is now claiming it was fraudulent.
What is the scenario
Instead of solving the problem, the bank staff allegedly assumed that the man himself had withdrawn money from his bank account and is now trying to prove the transaction to be fraudulent. After which the matter reached the Uttarakhand Consumer Commission and PNB had to pay a total compensation of 99,000 to this person. Let’s know why the bank had to pay compensation. When the person came to know that 75000 thousand rupees were withdrawn from his account, he immediately informed the bank about this fraud.
What the bank thinks
But the bank thought that he had withdrawn the money himself and is now trying to prove it to be fraud. Frustrated over the bank’s behaviour and the inability to yield any results, the man lodged a complaint with the banking ombudsman. After that, they took the matter to the District Consumer Forum, which eventually led to the Uttarakhand Consumer Commission. An interesting detail in this series of all these legal proceedings is that the bank consistently insisted that there was no fraud in ATM withdrawals.
What is the complain
The complainant, a resident of Haridwar, had Rs 77,214 in his Punjab National Bank savings account, out of which Rs 75,000 was withdrawn from an ATM in Ghaziabad between August 21, 2018 and August 26, 2018. The complainant alleged that PNB had not sent him any SMS alert about these fraudulent transactions. When the complainant came to know about these transactions, he called up PNB’s customer care and also lodged an FIR at Ranipur police station in Haridwar. According to PNB’s own investigation shared with the consumer forum, the complainant’s card was not cloned, so it is not possible that the transactions were fraudulent. The state police’s investigation revealed that these transactions were due to card cloning. Within three days of the fraudulent transactions being reported, PNB failed to take any concrete action.
The Uttarakhand State Consumer Commission ordered PNB to pay compensation with interest. As per this order, PNB will have to pay Rs 75,000 at an interest rate of 6%. The cost of the bank’s lawsuit also has to be paid Rs 5,000. PNB will now have to pay Rs 99,000.