New Delhi: South Delhi Police have arrested a State Bank of India (SBI) employee who had allegedly withdrawn over Rs. 4 lakh from frozen bank accounts. Acting on a complaint, police found that Shashi Bhushan  a resident of East of Kailash had withdrawn the amount from accounts belonging to Malviya Nagar branch of SBI.

Investigating the case police discovered that Shashi Bhushan had suffered a huge loss in the share market and was severely debt ridden. To escape from this  miserable situation he adopted this means.

The modus operandi of the accused was slightly different from regular cases relating to withdrawing funds from frozen or inactive accounts where official forge the signature and use withdrawal slips to get the money. Shashi instead got a debit card issued against such accounts and used ATM's to withdraw the cash.

Reserve Bank of India in a recent report had stated unclaimed money to the tune of Rs.1000 crore were present in inactive fixed deposits and saving accounts. These funds can be easily misappropriated by any person who has access to the vital personal and identification details related to such accounts. An unattended bank account with no transactions during the past one to two years is rendered inactive by the bank.

Multiple bank accounts, change of residence by the account holder, death of the account holder or a foreign trip, for which the owners cannot take care of  their accounts are some of the main reasons for the accounts being rendered inactive. To prevent oneself from such frauds it is pertinent that the account holder should transact  regularly and if he feels that the number of accounts is overwhelming, the simple solution is to close all the accounts, which are not required.