BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court passed an order to refund Rs 69,143 to Rahul Chari, whole-time director of PhonePe Private Limited, which was transferred from his account to the account of a complainant, Madhuri, based on an order passed by a magistrate in the city.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petition filed by Rahul Chari and PhonePe Private Limited, challenging the order passed by the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on the application filed by complainant RK Madhuri in 2021. After a debit of Rs 69,143 from his account, Rahul sought details from HDFC Bank, which informed him that it was credited to Madhuri’s account, based on an order passed by the magistrate.
Chari then moved the high court. Referring to the order passed in this case, the court directed magistrates to hear the suspected or accused persons, intermediaries like PhonePe in particular, before giving an order to transfer the amount, and not allowing such applications under Sections 451 and 457 of the CrPC in a casual manner.
The direction to magistrates came as the court noticed orders casually passed by magistrates in several cases for frozen and de-frozen bank accounts, and transfer of money to complainants’ accounts from suspected or accused persons’ accounts, without hearing them. “The magistrates are required to note that they are dealing with the properties of third parties. Decisions on such applications cannot become a frolicsome act on the part of magistrates merely because it is subject to indemnity. It is not the question of security, but the question of the right to property of an individual, from whose account the money is transferred without any information to him,” the court observed.
Madhuri, a resident of Yeshwantpur, lost Rs 69,143 to an unknown person who fraudulently accessed her bank account after she contacted the customer care of the e-commerce app on the number obtained on its Google website. She registered the complaint with cyber police on online financial fraud/UPI fraud with the suspect name Amith Mishra, in April 2021. Meanwhile, the court directed North CEN Police to pursue the complaint filed by Madhuri.