BERHAMPUR: The Rayagada district consumer disputes redressal commission directed the Ichinda branch of Bank of India (BoI) to refund Rs 7,001 wrongly transferred through UPI to an unintended account due to a mobile-number “churning” issue.
Commission president Rajendra Panda and member Satish Panigrahi examined the records and found that the money had been credited to the wrong account due to a technical issue associated with mobile-number reassignment, or “number churning”, where the earlier account linkage had not been removed.
Subhrakanta Sahu of Ashok Nagar, Rayagada, transferred the money on February 25, 2025, in three transactions of Rs 1, Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000. The payments were intended for the SBI account of his mother, Suprabha Sahu, but were instead credited to the BoI account of S K Afroz at Ichinda in Mayurbhanj district.
Sahu immediately approached the bank, the UPI app and the cyber police. Following police intervention, Afroz’s account was frozen. However, as the money was not returned for a prolonged period, Sahu approached the consumer commission and filed a complaint on May 8, 2025.
The commission directed the BoI to debit Rs 7,001 from Afroz’s frozen account and transfer the amount directly to Sahu’s SBI account within 45 days of receiving the order. If the amount is not refunded within the period, the bank will have to pay the sum along with 9 per cent annual interest from May 8, 2025, the date on which the complaint was filed.