State Commission asks SBI to compensate fraud victim

SBI was asked to pay Rs 26,000 after it failed to produce a video footage of the complainant making the transaction

Delhi state consumer commission has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to pay Rs 26,000 to a customer who lost Rs 20,000 in an alleged bank fraud incident in 2010.

The state commission dismissed an appeal filed by the SBI against a district consumer forum's order directing the bank to refund Rs 20,000 along with Rs 5,000 as compensation and Rs 1,000 towards litigation charges to a south Delhi resident Vinay Pal, who found his account was short of Rs 20,000 when he went to withdraw cash from an ATM in 2010.

The bank, however, had claimed that the amount was withdrawn by Pal himself and informed the forum that they were ready to provide the video footage but failed to do so.

According to the complaint, Pal, had on September 30, 2010, withdrawn Rs 5,000 from an ATM machine located at a CRPF camp in west Delhi when he allegedly found Rs 20,000 short.

He then complained to the concerned branch of the bank and deposited Rs 750 with its manager to obtain the video footage of the ATM.

District consumer forum had held the bank deficient in service and asked it to refund the amount along with compensation.