Information pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of amounts of various customers of the bank including appellant’s account by cloning of ATM card - PIO: Appellant has an account in Bangalore & case is taken up for refund with that branch
28 May, 2015ORDER
1. The appellant, Shri Chandra Pal submitted RTI application dated 24.02.2014 before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), Panchkula seeking information pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of amounts of various customers of the bank including appellant’s account No. 65120288215 through ATM, in his RTI application he stated that in most of the cases the money was refunded by the bank and in some cases including the appellant’s, the money was not refunded. He also sought the names of account holders in whose case the money was refunded and sought reasons for not refunding the money in some cases including his own.
2. The CPIO denied information under the provisions of Section 8(1) (e) and (j) of the RTI Act vide letter dated 05.03.2014. Dissatisfied with the reply of the CPIO, the appellant filed an appeal on 19.03.2014 before the first appellate authority (FAA). The FAA concurred the decision of the CPIO vide order dated 01.04.2014.
3. Thereafter the appellant filed the instant appeal before the Commission.
4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant stated that the respondents were misleading him and they had insisted that he withdraw his RTI application. The respondent stated that the appellant’s account is maintained by SBP, JP Nagar, Bangalore. The amount was withdrawn fraudulently by cloning the ATM Cards of various customers, though the ATM card was in appellant’s custody. The CPIO vide letter dated 13.4.2015 informed the appellant that they had paid the amount to all those customers whose amount had been withdrawn through ATM fraudulently. These customers had accounts with their branches. The payment could not be made to the appellant, because he had account at the JP Nagar Branch, Bangalore and his case had to be settled by that branch. They had already taken up the matter with the Bangalore Branch for payment to the appellant. They assured that they will again contact Bangalore for resolving the appellant’s problem.
5. The Commission directs the CPIO to provide the copy of their letter dated 13.04.2015 to the appellant and also advises them to resolve the issue as already assured by them. The respondents will intimate the action taken in this regard to the appellant within one week of receipt of this order. The appeal is disposed of.
(Manjula Prasher)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Chandra Pal v. State Bank of Patiala in Appeal: No. CIC/MP/A/2014/001304