Cops drag feet over complaint against private payment bank

According to SA Ponnusamy, the founder president of Tamil Nadu Milk Dealers Employees Welfare Association,the subsidy amount for his Bharat Petroleum cooking gas connection was being deposited in an Airtel Payments Bank account in his name – which he had not openED. He alleged that the investigators were dragging their feet despite filing a complaint.

“I noticed the diversion when the amount was not credited to my State Bank of India savings account in August. In November, I received an SMS notifying that the subsidy amount was deposited in an Airtel Payments Bank account. I was shocked, as I had not opened an account with them. 

When I checked further, I found that my subsidy amount has been getting deposited in the Airtel bank since September,” the complainant said in his police complaint. When he contacted the gas agency, Ponnusamy learnt that many other consumers were facing the same problem, but the agency told him it had nothing to do with the new account. When he contacted an Airtel store for further clarification, they too claimed to know nothing about the matter. 

Later, he found out through media reports that Airtel has been using the Aadhaar card details of customers to open the bank accounts in its payments bank, without customers’ consent, and filed a complaint. 

“I lodged a police complaint in December. But they have not registered a case till date,” said Ponnusamy. When contacted, a City Crime Branch officer said they were aware of the matter, but added that certain details were being collected before registering the case.

After the controversy in December last year, Airtel had offered to return Rs 190 crore cooking gas subsidy deposited into the unsolicited Airtel Payments Bank accounts through its 31 lakh mobile phone subscribers. Airtel had written to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) promising to return the amount to the consumers’ original bank accounts that were linked to the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). NPCI is an umbrella organisation for all retail payments in India. Both Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank came under fire after Airtel allegedly opened accounts of its mobile phone subscribers without seeking their “informed consent” and deposited cooking gas subsidy worth crores in those accounts.