Hyderabad: It was last year when a thief from Takarabasti broke into a bank’s cheque deposit box, forged a cheque and looted a businessman’s money.
The year old case created trouble for two banks as the consumer court asked them to pay for deficiency in service.
The case is related to a businessman from Secunderabad, who had received a cheque for Rs 1.25 lakh which he deposited with SBI’s Secunderabad branch last year.
After a week, he found that the cheque was not deposited but was encashed from the payee’s account at Punjab National Bank, Secunderabad.
A probe by the police found that a 25-year-old thief, from Takarabasti forged the businessman’s signature after breaking open the SBI’s cheque deposit box.
Though Rs 30,000 recovered from the thief was handed over, the businessman sought a refund of the remaining Rs 95,000 and a compensation of Rs 40,000.
SBI said that the bank was not responsible for a theft committed on the bank’s ATM premises, where the cheque drop box was located.
PNB, where the cheque was encashed, maintained that the cheque was forged in a clinical way, leaving no room for detection.
The forum quashed their arguments and noted that SBI came to know that an intruder broke open the cheque drop box only after a police investigation. Though the ATM kiosk had a CCTV, the bank did not lodge a complaint until March. It came down heavily on PNB for mechanically approving the cheque without scrutiny.
Finding deficiency in service, the court asked both the banks to jointly refund Rs 95,000 with a 12 per cent interest and a compensation of Rs 40,000.
