SBI held liable for employee fraud

An 80-year-old woman named Krishna from Haryana had Rs 4.37 lakh fraudulently withdrawn from her joint savings account by an employee of the State Bank of India (SBI) between October 2019 and February 2020.

The woman and her husband reported the fraud to the bank and later filed a complaint with the consumer commission.

The commission found that the bank was responsible for protecting the customer's money and held SBI liable for the fraudulent actions of its employee.

The commission ordered SBI to refund Rs 4.02 lakh plus interest and pay an additional Rs 10,000 for mental agony and litigation costs.

The bank argued that the investigation was ongoing and that the withdrawals might have been made by the account holder or an authorized person.

However, the commission found that the bank failed to provide evidence to support this claim.