Bank told to recover Rs 5 lakh from employees Bank told to recover Rs 5 lakh from employees

he district consumer court has directed Bank of Maharashtra to recover over Rs 5 lakh from errant employees at its Sinhgad Road branch for rendering deficient service.

Anandnagar residents Sanjay and Priya Kharote had complained to the consumer court that the bank froze their savings and current accounts for recovery of Rs 4.5 lakh. This was after two cheques of the same amount, issued to them on different occasions by a builder, were dishonoured.

They complained that the bank froze their accounts without returning the two original cheques, along with the cheque return memos, thereby depriving them of an opportunity to take legal action against the builder for having issued dud cheques to them.

The bench of V P Utpat, O G Patil and Kshitija Kulkarni directed the bank to refund Rs 4 lakh to the complainants with interest at 9.15% p.a. since June 2014 and pay Rs 10,000 as compensation. The interest component so far works out to Rs 95,000 and the total amount goes over Rs 5 lakh. The bench ordered that this amount should be recovered from the concerned employees and the bank should report compliance.

On April 29, 2014, the Kharotes deposited the first cheque of Rs 4.5 lakh in their savings account. Over the next two months, the couple even withdrew Rs 50,000 of this amount, using their debit card on different occasions and requested the bank to transfer the remaining Rs 4 lakh into a fixed deposit (FD). The bank issued them an FD receipt on June 13, 2014, promising a maturity amount of Rs 5.24 lakh payable on June 13, 2017.