Hyderabad: The State Bank of India’s AS Rao Nagar branch, deducted Rs 115 from the account of one of its customers, Mr Malladi Krishna Mohan Sharma, without his knowledge, as payment for a statement they had issued, but which Mr Sharma says he had never asked for.
In May 2017, while Mr Sharma, a temple priest, was on a pilgrimage he received an SMS which stated that Rs 115 had been deducted from his account for issuing an account statement. On returning, he made enquiries and was told rather rudely by the bank staff that it was for a duplicate statement he had requested and refused to accept his explanation that he had not asked for one.
He approached the head office at Hyderabad and also the banking Ombudsman.
The regional manager of Nacharam, replying to Mr Sharma’s mail, said that the statement was issued to one of Mr Sharma’s relatives in good faith, as the said person had shown them a cheque and requested the statement on his behalf.
The Ombudsman ordered compensation to be paid to Mr Sharma, but the bank did not reveal details about who took the statement from the bank.
“When I asked them to explain who the person was, they denied me details and did not even try to check the CCTV cameras in the bank because there was a huge rush when the statement was issued. Not only this, they made me wait for long hours even to accept my petition at the bank,” charged Mr Sharma. He added that the bank claimed it had called him for verification, but is not providing the call records to support their claim.
“It is a clear violation of my rights and though my account does not have huge transaction, I suspect that my personal information is compromised with unidentified strangers, and the bank staff for some reason could be helping him,” added Mr Sharma.
After he filed a petition in the XX Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court at Malka-jgiri, the court ordered the Kushaiguda police to register a case against Suresh Palem, an employee at the bank, the branch manager, and the regional manager at Nacharam. Inspector K. Chandrashekar of the Kushaiguda police said that the case is under investigation and the evidence is being collected.
