MUMBAI: A retired Indian Army officer was shocked to learn Rs2.37 lakhs was siphoned off from his two savings banking accounts in a nationalised bank between September 8 and 15.
Samta Nagar police registered a first information report (FIR) against an unknown person on Friday after the retired Lieutenant Colonel Ashish Chitnis (78) filed a written complaint on October 8 as he was unwell.
Chitnis checked his banking account on September 30 and found zero balance after he received a call from a woman identified as Jyoti who claimed to be an employee of the nationalised bank at Ashok Nagar in Kandivali (East) and asked to pay Rs6600 for the banking locker fees which is due. "We have sought details from the bank about the 13 fraudulent fund transfers that were carried out from the retired Indian Navy officer's banking accounts. The cyber wing of the police station is tracking the money trails to locate the fraudster," said a police officer of the Samta Nagar police station.
Chitnis has lost the money that was the pension sum that has accrued over a period. Chitnis's relative had returned from the hospital after undergoing health treatment when he received the call from the bank and found out the fraud had taken place in his accounts.
Chitnis was annoyed because the nationalised bank had not taken his complaint seriously nor responded to updates about the money that he lost due to the bank's negligence and even did not send any alerts on his mobile. In the complaint, Chitnis said: "I found zero balance in my accounts when I updated my passbook with the bank. From the first account in Gujarat, the fraudster started siphoning money from September 8 two fraudulent transactions for Rs25,000 each were done from my account. On September 11, another three transactions of Rs25,000 each and one Rs22,000 were done. Two more transactions for Rs25,000 each were done on September 13 and Rs25000 on September 15. While the fraudster carried out another three transactions for Rs15000 between September 11 and 15. However, I did not receive a single transaction alert on my registered mobile number with the bank."
A case under the Indian Penal Code section 420 (Cheating) and under the IT Act section 66 (C) (identity theft) has been registered against an unknown person.
