Two, including banker, held for siphoning off cash from NRI a/c

The cyber law expert suggests that the NRI can file compensation case under section 43A IT Act to get back his money

Two people including one ICICI bank official have been arrested by Dindoshi police in connection with the siphoning off over Rs. 20 lakh from NRI account.

The duo — bank staff Nitin Ranje (31) and his associate Sameer Khan – first managed to hack the NRI account by submitting a bogus PAN card at Nalasopara branch of the bank so that they can further change the registered mobile number of the customer.

The NRI, Balakrishna VN, lost sum of Rs. 20.29 lakh from his ICICI bank account at Malad (East) branch during February 27 and March 1, 2017 but he got alarmed almost after a year when he checked his bank balance in February this year. The Free Press Journal published the story on February 19 after the branch manager Deepak Laxminarayan Sharma (40) registered FIR at Dindoshi police station on behalf of his client who is working abroad. Ranje was arrested immediately whereas Khan was held from Nalasopara based on the technical evidences, said an officer from Dindoshi police station.

“The dormant bank accounts are susceptible to these frauds and in most of the cases the involvement of bank insiders have been proved. The hackers generally target bank accounts of NRI and the person who has died,” cyber law expert Puneet Bhasin told the Free Press Journal.

Bhasin further added that since the accused have been arrested in the case, there is strong chance of victim to get back his money.

“If you don’t use a debit or credit card, just fuse it. And if you have an NRI account, set a limit so that the transaction cannot be made beyond that limit and most important is that keep operating your account. Most of the customers do not read the form properly while opening an account. One should take healthy precaution by setting the transaction limit in a day to at least minimise the damage,” Bhasin said. She further suggested certain methods like filing compensation complaint under section 43A IT Act to get back his money.

“In this case, since he has been victimised by the representative of the bank which has failed to protect the sensitive personal data of the victim. So he can seek a compensation of upto Rs. 5 crore from the bank by filing a complaint under section 43A of IT Act. The criminal case has already be filed and arrests have been made by the police but the recovery of money may not happen. The accused will get punishment and could be penalised. So, the only way to get back his money is to file a compensation case under section 43A of the IT Act. Since the arrests have been made, the victim can also file a complaint at banking ombudsman too,” said Bhasin.

The FIR has been registered under sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of IPC and 66 (C), 66 (D) of IT Act.