In a recent court decision, ICICI Bank was granted permission to claim over INR 9.51 lakh recovered from three Romanian nationals involved in widespread ATM fraud. The decision, issued by a sessions court, overturned an earlier ruling by the metropolitan magistrate court in Kurla, Mumbai, which had denied the bank’s request due to insufficient proof.
Background: ATM Fraud Case and Recovery of Stolen Funds
The VB Nagar police had previously arrested three Romanian nationals accused of orchestrating ATM card fraud across nearly 500 cases. Authorities recovered INR 28.54 lakh from the accused, and a portion of these funds—INR 15.45 lakh—was allocated to the Bandra police station per the magistrate court’s order. The remaining INR 13.08 lakh was held by the police, out of which INR 9.51 lakh was connected to disputed ICICI Bank transactions. As ICICI Bank had already reimbursed the stolen amounts to its affected customers, it sought to retrieve INR 9.51 lakh through the legal process.
Sessions Court Reverses Magistrate’s Decision
Initially, the magistrate court had dismissed ICICI Bank’s plea, citing the need for additional proof, such as the serial numbers of the recovered notes and further details of the fraudulent transactions. However, the sessions court ruled that the magistrate’s decision was erroneous, stating that the recovered funds should have been provisionally returned to the bank. With this ruling, the sessions court has directed the police to hand over the funds to ICICI Bank, allowing the bank to recover part of its losses from the extensive ATM fraud scheme.