Pension Theft: Retiree shocked after losing Rs.18 lakh from bank account in Jagtial

Thirupati was withdrawing money from the senior citizen's account without his knowledge for the last seven years.

Jagtial: A septuagenarian retired government employee got the shock of his life when he came to know that his life savings of Rs.18 lakh, made up of his pension over the last seven years, had disappeared from his bank account. It has come to light that a resident of the same locality had linked his mobile phone number to the account of the retiree, Nakka Lakshman, and was withdrawing money from the senior citizen’s account without his knowledge for the last seven years.

A resident of Gandhinagar of Jagtial town, Lakshman, who worked in the Sri Ram Sagar Project, had retired in 2011 and was getting a pension of Rs.45,000 every month. A resident of the same locality, Dikonda Thirupati, allegedly linked his mobile phone number to Lakshman’s bank account and was allegedly transferring about Rs.24,000 to his account every month with the help of a mobile digital wallet and online payment app.

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Lakshman, who used to utilize only Rs.20,000 for his monthly expenses, never checked the balance and thought that the remaining amount would be in the account. The fraud came to light six months ago when Lakshman suffered a leg fracture and his wife enquired about the account balance with the bank for his treatment. She was informed that there was Rs.25,000 in the account and was asked to bring Lakshman to the bank to withdraw the amount. The next day, when they reached the bank, the balance had come down to Rs.20,000. Shocked, they asked the bank officials to check the transactions, and it was then that they came to know that Thirupati had withdrawn Rs 5,000 through the popular digital wallet and online payment app. Bank officials also told them that Thirupati was withdrawing cash from Lakshman’s account for a long time.

Knowing that they were cheated by Thirupati, the couple approached the police, who questioned the accused by summoning him to the police station. Thirupati had promised to repay the money, but so far, had not done so. Vexed over this, Lakshman and his wife, with the help of his relatives, on Monday approached the district administration and submitted a representation to the Collector during the Prajavani programme. They have appealed to the officials to do justice to them.