On December 3, the Bombay High Court sent notices to HDFC Bank and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Bombay High court’s move came after learning that police had arrested a bank employee who is accused of stealing ₹3 crore from a customer’s fixed deposits, as per the media report.
Bank Employee Stolen Customer’s Money
In this regard, Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan expressed, “Ultimately, people trust a particular bank… A relationship manager takes a person for a ride. What faith now will people… a person have in the banking system?”
This all came into picture when a complain was filed by Meenakshi Kapuria (53) where she said that her relationship manager, Payal Kothari (27), broke her fixed deposits worth ₹3 crore and transferred the money into fake accounts.
Further, this money was moved into Kothari’s own accounts.
Interestingly, while all this was happening in the background, the complaint Kapuria claimed she did not receive any SMS or email alerts regarding these transactions.
It appears that Kothari gained her trust by taking signed blank cheques as informed by Kapuria’s lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee on Monday.
Further Kothari promised Kapuria that the money would be invested in mutual funds, gold bonds, and other schemes that would earn more than fixed deposits.
Multiple Queries Raised During Hearings
Versova police were pressuring Kapuria to settle the issue with Kothari, said Siddiquee.
Earlier, Kothari’s bank accounts had been frozen, containing only Rs 30,000 as informed by the Prosecutor Kranti Hiwrale to the court.
Kothari had been arrested “this morning,” Hiwrale told the court on Tuesday.
“Why does an arrest have to be made only when a complainant comes to the court? And you’re (police) asking parties to settle the matter?” Justice Mohite-Dere questioned.
Another person could also be arrested soon, Gedam responded.
The investigation had been handed over from PI Amol Dhole to Senior PI Gajanan Pawar, who would supervise the case, Gedam said.
Adding, a departmental inquiry would be started for negligence, regarding the query of action against Dhole.
Further, judges asked why Kapuria didn’t receive transaction alerts.
Gedam responded that Kothari had changed Kapuria’s mobile number and email address in the bank’s records,
“And that is why when the transaction was happening, the victim was not getting any kind of alerts.”
“This is extremely serious,” the judges remarked.
Further, judges asked if the police had investigated the bank’s role, adding, “They can’t be allowed to go scot-free.”
“Is there no accountability of any bank when money is siphoned off under their nose?” Justice Mohite-Dere questioned.
Moving ahead Justice Mohite-Dere commented, “Considering the manner in which the petitioner was cheated,”.
He further ordered HDFC Bank’s senior manager from the Lokhandwala branch or the Mumbai regional manager to join the case, along with the RBI.
Adding, “This can’t be tolerated. Today, this is one case that has come up… Let them know what is happening because there are a lot of senior citizens who have parked their money in fixed deposits for their security in old age.”
