The Delhi High Court has sought responses from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and HDFC bank on a petition claiming a fraudulent debit transaction from the bank account of a man [Manmohan Kumar v. Reserve Bank Of India and Others]..Justice Vikas Mahajan issued notice in the plea seeking directions to reverse the fraudulent transactions as well as an inquiry into the affairs of HDFC Bank. .The petitioner Manmohan Kumar complained about an amount of ₹74,61,990 that was fraudulently debited from his HDFC Bank account. This was done after the unauthorised changing of his registered mobile number and email ID linked with the account, he submitted. His bank statements allegedly show an unauthenticated registered email ID as ‘loveofhdfc@gmail.com’ and mobile number as 18002600/18001600, which is allegedly HDFC’s customer care number. A virtual debit card was also created in his name without his consent, Kumar submitted. .HDFC initially reversed the transaction and put the money back into his account. However, later on the Bank took the money back, claiming that no fraudulent transaction took place. It allegedly told Kumar that there was no deficiency in its services and that OTPs sent for the transaction were authenticated.Thereafter, Kumar filed a complaint to the RBI Banking Ombudsman, which also held that HDFC was not at fault. Aggrieved, Kumar moved the High Court.His counsel argued that the Bank was trying to pass the blame to him while refusing to offer any explanation for the fraudulent creation of a virtual debit card and the unauthorised alteration of the registered contact details. It was also claimed that he did not share any of these details with anyone..Advocates Siddharth Batra, Rhythm Katyal, Archna Yadav and Shivani Chawla appeared for Kumar..[Read order]
