Order No. 4

Ld. Advocate for the complainant is present.

The case is taken up for admission hearing.

Perused and considered the complaint application along with photo copies of the document annexed thereto.

Heard the Ld. Advocate for the complainant.

It has been stated that the complainants are the joint account holders having savings bank account no. 50100227596067, IFSC:HDFC0001303, Statesman House Branch at 4, Chowringhee  Square, Kolkata -  700 001.

On 11/05/2023 the principal account holder i.e. complainant no.1 received belated SMS at about 6.55 P.M., wherefrom she came to know that without her knowledge and in absence or issue of any instruction from her side a huge amount had been fraudulently withdrawn from her aforesaid joint savings bank account. It is mentioned that save and except complainant no.1, and other two petitioners had never issued any OTP to anyone. After she received SMS, the complainant no.1 immediately requested to stop all operations in the account including net banking, ATM service and other various services related thereto and also instructed customer care of HDFC Bank over phone not to disburse any further amount from her aforesaid account to any one. She also requested to take necessary official action to protect her fund but she was informed that it was not possible for them to stop disbursement from her account but they will take action so that no further withdrawal be made from the said bank account of the complainants. A complaint was lodged with the customer care of HDFC Bank on 11/05/2023 and on the very date complainant no.1 lodged a written complaint to the Shyampukur Police Station vide G.D.E. No.1011 dated 11/05/2023 regarding the fraudulent transaction in her savings bank account resulting withdrawal of Rs.99,992/- (Rupees Ninety Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Two) only.

It is further stated that at the same time the complainant no.1 also lodged complaint with the National Cyber Crime through its online portal which was acknowledged by the National Cyber Crime on the very same date.  i.e. on 11/05/2023. Thereafter, the National Cyber Crime vide its email dated 18/08/2023 informed the  complainant that the investigation of the complaint has been closed without assigning any reason whatsoever. The complainant no.1 also went to the nearest Hatibagan Branch of HDFC Bank and filled up digital bank dispute form and submitted the same on 12/05/2023. In spite of that the opposite party did not take any official steps till date. It is evident from the statement of savings bank account that the disputed transactions of Rs.99,992/- (Rupees Ninety Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Two) only were deducted for 8 times from the complainant’s account which were made through UPI payment generated from unknown devices. According to the complainant opposite party no.1 / HDFC Bank                                                                        advised complainant no.1 to lodge a complain with the Cyber Police for further investigation of the disputed transactions and also to make complaint with opposite party no.12 Mr. Mehernosh Dhamodiwala, The Grievance Redressal Officer of HDFC Bank Limited and accordingly complainant no.1 made such complaint with those authorities.

Complainant no.1 also lodged a complaint with opposite party no.6 Ombudsman on 25/05/2023 but to no effect.

The complainants stated that it is the duty of the bank to protect its customer against any forgery but in their case the bank failed to do so. Therefore, bank is liable for deficiency in service. Hence, this case has been filed by the complainants on the prayer of refund of Rs.99,992/- (Rupees Ninety Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Two) only inter alia on other reliefs.

On careful scrutiny of the statement made in the complaint and photo copies of documents annexed thereto we find on 11/05/2023 altogether there were 8 UPI transactions for the total sum of Rs.99,992/- (Rupees Ninety Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Two) only from the savings bank account having *** drawal facility of the complainants. From Annexure A-2 it appears that on 11/05/2023 at 6.55 P.M. HDFC Bank sent 8 SMS for the alleged fraudulent 8 transactions. The said some of the SMS were repeated on the same date at 7.20 P.M. by the bank.  Written complaint with Shyampukur P.S. (Annexure ‘C’) reveals that the complainant no.1 stated that she received no OTP at the time of transactions but the complaint form of cyber crime department filled up by the complainant no.1 (Annexure D) reveals that she received few OTPs related to the alleged transactions.

Annexue D1 reveals that the National Cyber Crime Department investigated the alleged cyber crime and closed the case. This closure of the complaint was informed to complainant no.1 by the National Cyber Crime Department vide its email dated 18/08/2023.

It further reveals from Annexure D1 that the detail of the investigation report regarding the closure of the case is available in the website of the National Cyber Crime reporting portal. The complainants have not submitted the details of the investigation report deliberately in this case. On the other hand in paragraph no.5  of the complaint, the complainants alleged that the National Cyber Crime closed the case without assigning any reasons whatsoever, which we find clearly in contradiction of Annexure D1.

It is needless to mention that for such type of alleged crime the cyber crime police have expertise knowledge to investigate the issue. After investigation cyber police of National Cyber Crime Department found no anomalies in the alleged 8 transactions for which they closed the case and informed the same to the complainant no.1 (Annexure D1) and the details of the investigation was provided in the website of the cyber crime reporting portal. Such detail report has not been challenged or denied by the complainants till date. Moreover, the said detail report of investigation has been withheld for the reason best known to the complainants.

That apart, the UPI customer liability vide its email dated 23/05/2023 at 5.05 P.M. informed the complainant no.1 that they received correct UPI PIN for the disputed transactions from the account, accordingly, transactions were successfully settled from their side.

We do not find any merit to re-open the issue any further as the best investigation agency having expertise mechanism to investigate the issue investigated and closed the case from which it can safely be presumed that no irregularity has been detected in the transactions mentioned above.

This Commission do not have any mechanism or expertize to investigate into any Cyber Crime as alleged in the complaint application.

Having considered the discussion made above, we are of the opinion that the case of the complainants lacks merit and liable to be rejected.

Hence, it is

                                                O R D E R E D

that the Complaint Case be and the same is dismissed without cost.  

Dictated by me

…...................

  President