'Samaritan' walks off with Rs 3.2 lakhs
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 04 2012:
A 61-year-old pensioner has been duped by a fraud to the tune of Rs 3.20 lakhs from her account at United Bank of India (UBI), MG Avenue branch recently.
On August 9 last, Bhanumati Devi of Moirangkhom Sougaijam Leikai, a retired teacher of Lamlong High School went to the bank to check whether her pension amount had been transferred to her account.
According to Bhanumati's son-in-law, Khangenbam Shyamkumar, his mother-in-law was usually assisted by her daughter even in drawing her monthly salary as she does not have any knowledge about bank transactions.
But she went alone that day to the bank as her daughter was ill.
There at MG Avenue, she met a man who was assisting other customers at the bank, he added.
As Bhanumati thought that the man was a staff of the bank, she requested the man to help her in withdrawing the pension amount of Rs 3.20 lakhs from her account.
The man withdrew the amount from Counter No 3 of the bank and disappeared without meeting his mother, Shyamkumar added.
Apart from Bhanumati's signature, the cheque through which the man had withdrawn the amount had another signature on the name, 'L Joykumar' .
A complaint was registered at the City Police Station regarding the incident the same day.
Another application was also submitted to the higher authority of the bank to check the video footages from the CCTVs fitted at the bank.
However, after waiting for many days, on September 28 last, one Kishorlal who identified himself as the CCTV expert told the family of Bhanumati that the hard disc did not have any footage due to technical failure.
The matter was again put up before the Assistant General Manager of the bank.
However, the Assistant GM was allegedly of not much help.
Meanwhile, OC of City Police Station told The Sangai Express that the police is still not able to identify the culprit.
The OC added that the man was however not a staff of the bank.