Banks with over 10 branches to have ombudsman: RBI
Mumbai, Sep 3 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday asked all scheduled commercial banks with more than 10 branches to appoint an Internal Ombudsman (IO). It, however, excluded Regional Rural Banks (RRB) from the requirement.
"The IO shall examine customer complaints which are in the nature of deficiency in service on the part of the bank, that are partly or wholly rejected by the bank," the RBI said in a release introducing the Internal Ombudsman Scheme, 2018.
The IO mechanism was set up with a view to strengthening the internal grievance redress system of banks and to ensure that the complaints of the customers are redressed at the level of the bank itself, the apex bank said.
With an IO, the redress will be done by an authority placed at the highest level of bank's grievance redressal mechanism. It will minimize the need for the customers to approach other fora for redressal, the RBI said.
As a part of this customer-centric approach, the banking regulator issued revised directions in the form of 'Internal Ombudsman Scheme, 2018' to enhance the independence of the IO and to strengthen the monitoring system.
The IO Scheme will cover appointment, tenure, roles and responsibilities, procedural guidelines and oversight mechanism for the IO, among other things. Its execution will be monitored by the bank's internal audit mechanism apart from regulatory oversight by RBI.
The RBI had, in May 2015, advised all public sector and select private and foreign banks to appoint IOs as an independent authority to review complaints that were partially or wholly rejected by the respective banks.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
