E-Paper
₹11-lakh cyber fraud: FIR against bank staff after court order in Lucknow
The victim, Kumar Vikram, alleged that ₹11.05 lakh was siphoned off from his bank account through multiple transactions in June 2024. He said that despite promptly informing the bank, no immediate action was taken, forcing him to move court.
A Lucknow resident lost over ₹11 lakh in an alleged cyber fraud after a single SMS alert exposed unauthorised transactions, triggering a legal battle that has now led to the registration of an FIR.
The victim, Kumar Vikram, alleged that ₹11.05 lakh was siphoned off from his bank account through multiple transactions in June 2024. He said that despite promptly informing the bank, no immediate action was taken, forcing him to move court.
On the directions of the court, an FIR under Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2008, was registered at the Jankipuram police station on Saturday (April 11), naming the manager and other employees of a private bank’s Jankipuram branch, along with unidentified persons.
According to the FIR, the fraud came to light on June 20, 2024, when Vikram received an SMS at 2:18 pm alerting him to a ₹5 lakh transfer he had not authorised.
“On contacting customer care, Vikram found that transactions of ₹3.50 lakh, ₹1.50 lakh and ₹5,000 had already been carried out a day earlier. Further debits of ₹5 lakh and ₹6 lakh were made the same day, taking the total to ₹11.05 lakh,” Jankipuram station house officer (SHO) Vinod Kr Tiwari quoted the complainant as alleging in the FIR.
Vikram alleged that the bank failed to act swiftly even after being alerted and asked him to wait 24 hours before blocking services. He also questioned how such large transactions were processed without OTP verification or timely alerts, raising concerns over the bank’s security protocols.
He further alleged that the bank temporarily credited ₹16.05 lakh to his account during the course of its “investigation”, but reversed the amount on September 17, 2024, without prior notice, which deepened his mistrust.
The FIR states that on December 18, 2024, the bank informed him that the transactions were due to “customer negligence” without providing supporting evidence. Vikram said no action was taken on his complaints to the cyber police and senior officials until he approached the court.
