Mumbai: Rs 75.45L siphoned off from deceased customers’ accounts; bank staff booked

Police said the accused misused his power to ascertain the details of the accounts that haven’t been active for past couple of years and transferred the amount to his wife’s account.

A Service manager of a multinational bank has been booked for criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery for allegedly siphoning off Rs 75.45 lakh from the accounts of two deceased customers of the bank.

Police said the accused misused his power to ascertain the details of the accounts that haven’t been active for past couple of years and transferred the amount to his wife’s account.

The police said a case was registered early this week at the Borivali police station after an associate vice-president working with the bank’s financial crime investigation unit approached them with a complaint.

The police said one of the female account holders of the bank had passed away in February 2020. Her daughter was aware that her mother had deposited Rs 53.95 lakh in her fixed deposit account. So following the death, the daughter approached the bank, enquiring about the formalities that she needs to fulfil to get the money.

“Soon after this, a lockdown was imposed due to which the bank’s operation was affected,” said an officer.
In February 2021, the account holder’s daughter lodged a complaint at the bank’s website as she did not get the money till then. The bank officials then conducted a check and learnt that the money had been diverted to the account of another person, Jeevan (name changed).
“An inquiry was launched by the bank during which they came to know that the money was further transferred from Jeevan’s account. Eventually, the officials realised that the beneficiary was the wife of the bank’s service manager,” said an officer.

The bank officials then sent their employees to Jeevan’s address and came to know that though he had died in 2015, his bank account was active for six years, and the service manager had also siphoned off Rs 21.5 lakh from his account.

The officials then called the service manager who told them that he had applied for KYC update for those accounts and thus got access to them. He even changed the contact numbers attached to the accounts to ensure that the relatives of the deceased are not notified.

The police added that when the service manager realised that the inquiring authorities have all the necessary evidence against him, he returned Rs 75.45 lakh belonging to the family members of the two deceased.

The police said they are trying to ascertain whether the service manager siphoned off money using similar modus operandi from anyone else’s account. Senior Inspector Sudhir Kalekar said an FIR was registered. He added that they are yet to make an arrest as they are still trying to gather more evidence against the service manager.

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