NAHARLAGUN, Jan 17: One Prafulla Bhuyan, claiming to be the Sales Officer of the Naharlagun branch of Axis Bank, has reportedly duped a state IPR department official Denga Bengia on the pretext of opening a bank account and has been absconding since.
Making the allegation through a press communiqué on Tuesday, Bengia alleged the supposed bank officer of fraud and cheating innocent public in the name of opening bank accounts at their doorsteps.
The IPR official claimed that Bhuyan had been pursuing him to open a bank account since long and he finally agreed on 29 November, 2017.
Bengia said that he shelled out an amount of Rs 6000 as minimum deposit and gave his details and required documents to Bhuyan, who then handed him a blank passbook, a cheque book, an ATM card of the Axis Bank with pin code and other relevant documents.
Bengia reportedly visited the bank on the next day (30 November, 2017) to update his passbook, but was told of a ‘link failure’ for the next three to four days that he visited. Soon it was learnt that the ATM card was also non-functional.
After over a month-long wait, he said that he visited the bank again on 12 January this year and spoke to Branch Manager Avik Nag and found that his account had not been opened with the branch.
Bengia claimed that the branch manager informed him that Bhuyan is an officer of the bank and all the documents are genuine and issued by the Naharlagun branch of Axis Bank, adding that a disciplinary action against the officer has been initiated.
However, when this daily spoke to Nag, it was informed that Bhuyan was not employed with the bank.
Bengia further alleged that the bank refused to return the Rs 6000 he had reportedly handed over to Bhuyan for opening an account in the bank as there was no history of deposit, but was asked to visit the bank on 15 January, with assurance that the matter would be resolved.
But the alleged accused did not turn up on the day as well.
The irate government official, who gave copies of his documents to this daily, has filed an application with the branch manager of Axis Bank Ltd, Naharlagun under Right to Information Act 2005, seeking detailed information on the appointment/ termination and other details of the said officer.
The bank manager refrained from making further comments on the allegations made by the IPR official.
