Kolkata: Canara Bank customers allege fraudulent withdrawal from their savings accounts, probe initiated

Besides informing the bank, those customers registered complaint with Gariahat and Rabindra Sarobar Police Stations against the alleged bank fraud.

Sharing her experience, a customer of Canara Bank's Golpark branch, Aninwita Mukherjee, told IBNS, "I received a message from my bank on Sunday (July 29) night where it was informed that Rs. 20,000 were debited from my savings account when I was at my house since morning and my ATM-cum-Debit card was inside my purse."

"Instantly, I called the customer care centre of Canara Bank and informed them about the incident. They told me that Rs. 40,000 were debited from my account in two phases and the entire amount was withdrawn from an ATM counter in Delhi," Aninwita Mukherjee, a resident of south Kolkata's Ballygunge area, said.

The woman said that the nationalized bank's customer care executive had suggested her to submit a complaint to her bank's branch manager.

"Besides filing a complaint before the manager of Canara Bank's Golpark branch on Monday, I have already lodged complaint with Gariahat Police Station as well as Kolkata Police's Anti Bank Fraud branch," alleged victim of the bank fraud, Aninwita Mukherjee, added.

The manager of Canara Bank's Golpark branch on Tuesday afternoon lodged a complaint at Gariahat Police Station against he alleged fraudulent withdrawal.

After registering the police complaint, the bank manager said, "As many as 35 customers of my branch have informed me about the fraudulent withdrawal from their savings accounts and on behalf of my bank, I lodged a complaint against the fraud and requested the police to initiate an investigation into the matter."

"Besides forwarding the case to my bank's headquarter, I've also informed our insurance agency about the fraud and my superior authority has assured me that they are taking necessary steps to refund money to the accounts of our victim customers," he addded.

Meanwhile, several customers of Canara Bank's five more branches, including Jadavpur in southern Kolkata and College Street in central part of the city, alleged the same and lodged complaints at Rabindra Sarobar, Jadavpur and Lake Police Stations.

A senior official of Kolkata Police said that a probe has been initiated into the alleged bank fraud.

"Few of our police stations in southern Kolkata have received a large number of complaints of fraudulent withdrawal while more than 35 complaints have been registered only at Gariahat and Rabindra Sarobar Police Stations so far," the official told IBNS.

"Besides the respective police stations, our Anti Bank Fraud section is probing the matter and as the fraud was reportedly operated from Delhi, we are planning to depute our investigators to the national capital," he said.

"We are suspecting that either the main server of Canara Bank, which is located in New Delhi, was hacked or few ATMs of the bank in south Kolkata had been 'cloned' by the fraudsters to get details about the victim customers' saving accounts and ATM-cum-Debit cards," the officer added.

Police also said that the fraudulent withdrawal was committed from an ATM of Canara Bank in Delhi on last Saturday (July 28) and Sunday (July 29).

Meanwhile, few customers of other nationalized banks including State Bank of India (SBI), who used to withdraw money using Canara Bank's ATM in Kolkata, claimed that a few thousand rupees were fraudulently debited from their savings accounts.

A city police official told IBNS that Anti Bank Fraud department is also looking into the matter.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)