Savings Stolen: Elderly, women bear brunt of Bank Scam in Shopian

Shopian, August 18: A few weeks ago, Ghulam Mohammad Lone visited the Turkwanagam branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in south Kashmir’s Shopian district to check the balance of his account after social media burst forth with the reports of fraudulent withdrawals affecting some customers.

To his shock, he discovered that Rs 14 lakh had been withdrawn from his account, leaving it empty. Soon Lone’s wife Amina Banoo also checked her account and she also found it empty—Rs 15000 were siphoned off from her account. The fraud left the farmer husband-wife duo in a financial bind. “ We learnt that the money had been withdrawn in 2023," said Sajad Ahmad son of Lone.

Lone said that after bringing the issue to the notice of bank authorities, they recovered Rs 4 lakh.

Many consumers complained that their hard-earned money had mysteriously vanished from their savings bank accounts. The case first surfaced when Zarifa discovered that her deceased father’s account had been siphoned off from around Rs 5 lakh. An inquiry into the matter revealed that the money was fraudulently withdrawn by one Mudassir Ahmad, a resident of Tukrwangam.

Another customer said that an amount Rs 1.77 lakh was fraudulently withdrawn from his account.

He, however, said that the cash was recovered after they approached the bank authorities. For the past few days, consumers from several adjoining villages have been flocking to the bank to check their balance.

Sources told Greater Kashmir that the money was siphoned off from the savings accounts that had not witnessed frequent transactions over the past several years or were not using the e-banking services.

They said that most of the victims were either women or elderly.

“ Around Rs 60 to Rs 90 lakh have been withdrawn from the accounts of several consumers”, said the sources.

They, however, said that the exact amount could not be immediately known.

A senior bank official said, who declined to be quoted, said that a bank employee working at the said branch was placed under investigation while a thorough investigation was on.