Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The consumer court ordered state bank of Indore has been ordered to pay rupees 3,46,500 to one of its customer Anupchand Mehta regarding the theft in the locker. It is after 14 years that Mehta couple will receive amount of their lost valuables from the bank. The bank has been ordered to pay 12 percent interest per month from February 2008 and compensation of 60 k to the couple.
The Mehta couple bought the locker in December 2006 and kept items with equivalent value of Rs.3.54,500. The said locker was opened for the last time on February 13, 2007 by the couple. Bank Officer Khandekar informed Mehta couple about their locker found half open by the bank on February 2, 2008. The couple were taken aback as they discovered their locker empty. The manager of the bank promised an investigation, however, no response to the investigation was ever shared with the couple. The bank kept on delaying the investigation and never answered to any legal notice sent by the couple.
Consumer Court on May 3 ruled out that the bank left many questions unanswered and neglected its responsibility by not doing any satisfactory investigation regarding the theft in the locker provided to the complainants. The ornaments and the cash kept was also stolen which clearly shows the deficiency in service and no relief was given to the complainant even after a lot of efforts.
Hence, the bank is now responsible to pay back rupees 3,46,500 to the complainant side with interest at the rate of 12 percent per month from February 2008. This amount is expected paid from the salaries of those bank employees who were deployed for the security and maintenance of the bank lockers at that time and the bank. An additional compensation of rupees 60 thousands is to be paid as damages for mental distress to the opponent.
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