Customer sues State bank

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

In a case before a Colombo Court, a depositor of a State bank alleged that the bank may have misappropriated the money she deposited in the bank amounting to US$ 17,724

Making a complaint with Criminal Investigations Department (CID), the complainant, Shirani Anoma Dullewa of Nawala, complained that she had opened a RFC accounts with the State bank by depositing US$ 17,724 at a branch in Kollupitiya on 25 June 1998.

The complainant alleged that when she visited the bank in order to withdraw the money that she deposited, the bank had informed her that the money in the account had already been withdrawn. She said she had never withdrawn money from her bank account and asked the CID to carry out an investifgation into the incident.

The B report filed by the CID had stated that the incident can be considered as an offence which comes under section 386 and 400 of the Penal Code.

When the case came up before Colombo Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne, the Counsel who represented the bank submitted in court that the complainant had taken a bank overdraft and had not been paid and thereby the deposited money which owed to the overdraft might have deducted. However, the complainant denied the fact that she had taken an overdraft. Further magisterial inquiry into the incident was postponed for 12 December.