Hyderabad: Central Bank gets notice after bad credit issued to wrong person

Hyderabad: The Kushaiguda Police served a notice to the zonal manager of the Central Bank of India in Koti here to appear for an investigation in a case filed by a Retd Lt. Col. for assigning bad credit history to the wrong person.

Central Bank and other banks mentioned in the case claimed that the complainant defaulted on multiple loans. However, they were taken by some other person with a similar name.

Case details

As per case records, the complainant is a retired Lt. Col. MS Raju (74), a resident of Shanti Vihar, Near Green Park Enclave, Kapra in Medchal Malkajgiri District. Raju has been maintaining an account with the State Bank of India (SBI) and he had approached the SBI branch in Defence Colony in September 2021 for an urgent loan.

However, SBI rejected Raju’s application, stating that his credit score with TransUnion CIBIL Ltd was too low. The report stated that Raju is a defaulter in payment of credit card bills of Rs 46,757.

CIBIL score showed loans from multiple banks

Subsequently, in September, the SBI gave a print of the CIBIL report which showed that Raju had defaulted on the credit cards of American Express Bank, SBI and Central Bank of India. This brought down Raju’s credit score due to which his loan was rejected.

However, Raju stated that he had neither applied nor used the credit cards mentioned in the CIBIL report.

He also filed multiple requests with the respective banks mentioned in the report to remove his association with the loans but none of them rectified the issue and stated that they are bound to the CIBIL report. Later, American Express issued a regret letter and informed that the same was rectified.

Raju stated that the Central Bank of India and its zonal manager here also rectified the same after he approached the RBI.

The loans were taken by ‘KSN Raju’ not ‘MS Raju’

The CIBIL report – which showed four accounts in the negative – the name of the account holder in the PAN, telephone number, email ID and residential address was ‘KSN Raju’ and not ‘MS Raju.’ The credit cards were never issued by the said banks to MS Raju.

Raju said that the SBI’s Cards and Payments Service claimed that the card was issued to him on January 9, 2004. However, during that time Raju was serving in the Indian Army. However, SBI failed to respond to his requests to rectify the issue. Raju also filed a complaint with the RBI against the SBI, Cards and Payments Service Ltd.

SBI did not respond even after a year

In a reply to MS Raju’s mail on July 30, 2022, SBI categorically admitted the issuance of the cards, reflected in TransUnion CIBIL Ltd. The CIBIL record belonged to Surya N Raju Kunapa Raju and it is submitted that they have taken steps to de-link Surya N Raju Kunapa Raju cards from MS Raju’s records and that the same will be reflected in the CIBIL records within 7 to 15 days, which amounts to an admission of gross negligence by the SBI.

Even after a year, SBI did not rectify its entries and the Reserve Bank of India also closed the complaint. It was submitted that SBI sent an email on December 10, 2021, wherein MS Raju was addressed as KSN Raju which is false and manifests that the said card belonged to KSN Raju and not to MS Raju.

Even though the issue with the wrong name established that the actions of SBI are patently illegal, they are yet to remove the said entries from MS Raju’s CIBIL score issued in the name of one KSN Raju in December 2003, which showed an unpaid balance of Rs 34,000.

The same is being done by them despite MS Raju having asked for the delinking almost a year ago, at which point, the SBI had not even responded and now after more than a year, the said reply was sent, which established that the SBI had deliberately defamed the complainant.

Kushaiguda police registered a case and the investigation is on.