Chennai: ATM card stolen from flooded house

Chennai: A victim of December deluge, an octogenarian, lost her entire bank balance swindled by a migrant labourer who is building his house back in Odisha.

The incident came to light only after the victim’s daughter Saistha Akbar Banu, (59), attempted to withdraw money from her mother’s account. Her cheque returned due to insufficient sum on Tuesday.

She checked with the bank only to find out that her mother’s ATM card had been used 42 times when her mother had not gone out of the house since they returned after the flood level that rose to eight feet in T Nagar in their apartment had drained in the second week of December.

Saistha took the help of her mason Bathra who in turn brought another Bathra who worked as a private security guard and three others to clean the house.  

The mason Bathra found that the other Bathra had left the city on December 20 last to his place  Ambo village, Nandipada taluk, Keonjhar District, Odisha, and the latter had also grown richer. “The clever man had begun his house construction with my mother’s money”, Saistha told DC.

The withdrawal records show that he had been withdrawing money from December 16  while the major chunk was withdrawn from ATMs in Odisha.
Saistha’s mother - Zahra Kausar Subhan, (84), widow of M.A. Subhan who retired as a civil surgeon from Andhra Pradesh, and resident of Kasi Towers on South West Boag Road, T Nagar, was receiving her pension in that account besides the maintenance money sent by her son living abroad.

“I left only with my aged mother in the raft when water level rose. I did not think of anything. This Bathra had taken my mother’s ATM card which also had the pin written on it. Now, the cops are blaming me that I should have been careful. This has come as a second tragedy for us post-flood ravage,” Saistha said.
Based on Saistha’s complaint, Mambalam police are investigating.