Bank credits fund to widow of man's namesake

A realtor was shocked after he got a notification from his bank saying his account was closed. He was in for another shock when the bank informed his daughter that a woman who identified herself as his widow, produced his death certificate and got his funds of Rs 1.7 lakh transferred to her account.

The realtor, Nazeer Ahmed (63), a resident of West of Padarayanapura, rushed to the private bank in Cubbon Park limits, and demanded an answer from the bank.

The bank officials were baffled since three days earlier, a woman claiming to be Ahmed’s wife, furnished his death certificate and his latest bank statement and got the money transferred to her account.

The funds were transferred on August 13. The shocked Ahmed and his daughter approached the Cubbon Park police and lodged a complaint of cheating against the woman identified by the bank as Khalida Khanum, also a resident of West of Padarayanapura.

The twist

Upon investigation, the police learnt that it was a case of mistaken identity. A courier boy delivered Nazeer Ahmed’s bank statement to the house of another man of the same name, whose family lived on the next street in the same locality as the realtor Nazeer Ahmed.

Khalida Khanum’s husband Nazeer Ahmed (also in his late 50s) worked for a private company and had died of natural causes six months ago, the police said. When Khalida Khanum got the bank statement from the courier boy, she assumed that her late husband had maintained a bank balance without her knowledge.

She thought it had come as timely help for the widow who was trying to make ends meet and was trying to come to terms with her husband’s demise.

Khalida Khanum took her husband’s death certificate and the bank statement, headed to the bank and claimed that her husband Nazeer Ahmed was no more and the cash needed to be transferred to her account. The bank obliged promptly, sympathising with the widow, but it failed in its verification process to identify the actual Nazeer Ahmed, the police pointed out.

It was then that realtor Nazeer Ahmed received a notification from the bank after which he took it up with the bank and the
police.

“Our investigation revealed that the woman is innocent, but we have taken up a criminal complaint against the bank for its negligence in verifying the account details. The money will be recovered and reverted to its owner,” a senior police officer said.