E-Paper
Woman’s ₹7 lakh vanishes then refunded in Lucknow
Sunita Vishwakarma, who holds an account at a private bank’s Aliganj branch, discovered the loss on August 16 when she tried to withdraw cash with her husband
: A woman from Lucknow’s Dubagga area reported that ₹7 lakh disappeared from her bank account in a cyber fraud case but was later refunded after she filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell. However, her account remains frozen, preventing her from accessing the money.
Sunita Vishwakarma, who holds an account at a private bank’s Aliganj branch, discovered the loss on August 16 when she tried to withdraw cash with her husband. She found her account balance had dropped to zero due to two unauthorised IMPS transactions of ₹4 lakh and ₹3 lakh.
She said the bank manager did not act quickly and asked her to report the matter to the Cyber Crime Cell. Vishwakarma claimed the bank staff were unhelpful and only accepted her written complaint after repeated requests.
Vishwakarma also said she did not use mobile or net banking, nor did she receive any SMS alerts about the transactions, raising suspicion of possible internal involvement in the fraud. After her complaint, the bank credited ₹7 lakh back to her account on September 30 but placed a hold on the funds, blocking withdrawals. DCP East Zone, Shashank Singh, confirmed an FIR has been registered. The cyber crime unit is investigating whether the fraud was caused by an external cyberattack or internal collusion.
