Chandigarh, April 28 — A Chandigarh woman lost ₹8 lakh from her fixed deposit account after falling victim to an online fraud, police said.
The victim, Shukla Mahajan, a resident of Sector 39-B, reported the incident to police after noticing multiple unauthorised transactions.
In her complaint, filed on February 28, 2025, Mahajan stated she received a message informing her that ₹2 lakh had been debited from her account. Believing it to be an error, she initially ignored it.
However, after receiving two more one-time passwords (OTPs) linked to further debits of ₹2 lakh each, Mahajan and her husband rushed to their bank. By the time they reached, ₹8 lakh had been fraudulently withdrawn from her fixed deposit, which was scheduled to mature in 2026.
Bank officials acted swiftly, freezing her account and securing the remaining balance.
“We immediately froze the account to prevent further losses after verifying the unauthorised activity,” a bank official said.
Mahajan then approached the cyber cell and lodged a formal complaint, seeking investigation and recovery of her funds.
Based on a preliminary inquiry, police registered a case under Sections 319(2) (cheating by personation), 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 340(2) (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
“We have registered a case and investigations are underway to trace the accused and recover the defrauded amount,” an official from the cyber cell said.
