Man Claims Rs.74 Lakh Fraud Through Virtual Debit Card; Delhi High Court Issues Notice to RBI, HDFC Bank

The Delhi High Court has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Banking Ombudsman, and HDFC Bank to respond to a complaint filed by a man who says he lost ₹74 lakh due to a fraud involving a virtual debit card created without his permission.

Case Details

Manmohan Kumar, the petitioner (person who filed the case), said that some unknown person made fake transactions worth ₹74.61 lakh from his HDFC Bank account. He said that without his knowledge, the mobile number and email ID linked to his bank account were changed. After that, a virtual debit card was created, and the fraud took place.

Between 20.12.2024 to 23.12.2024, fraudulently transactions totalling Rs.74,61,990/- were carried out in the bank account of the petitioner maintained with the HDFC Bank.

On 23.12.2024, the petitioner visited the Model Town Branch of respondent no.3/Bank to get his bank statements where he discovered that his registered mobile number and e-mail ID connected to his bank account were changed without his consent or authentication. The bank statements of petitioner‟s account show the unauthenticated registered email ID as loveofhdfc@gmail.com and mobile number as 18002600/18001600, which is the alleged customer care number of the Bank.

Consequently, the petitioner filed a complaint through e-mail dated 28.12.2024 addressed to the respondent Bank requesting them to take immediate steps to investigate the matter. Resultantly, Bank reversed the debit entries worth Rs.74,61,990/- back to the petitioner’s account on 08.01.2025.

However, the grievance articulated in the present writ petition is that no actual action was taken by the Bank on the complaint of the petitioner. Rather, the Bank only kept delaying the matter and misguiding the petitioner by claiming that the issue was under investigation. It is alleged that the respondent Bank had communicated to the petitioner that the complaint will be resolved by 10.02.2025, however, on 04.02.2025, respondent no.3 unilaterally reversed the previously credited amount of Rs.74,61,990/- to the petitioner‟s account leaving it with a negative balance of Rs.69,69,134.21/-.

At first, HDFC Bank reversed the money from the transaction. But later, the bank took the money back again, putting his account into a negative balance.

HDFC Bank told the court that it did nothing wrong. The bank claimed that the transactions were done using One-Time Passwords (OTPs) and were properly verified. So, they said the mistake was on the part of the customer, not the bank.

When Manmohan Kumar complained to the Banking Ombudsman (an RBI-appointed officer to solve such complaints), his complaint was rejected. So, he approached the Delhi High Court.

The customer’s lawyer argued that the bank and RBI are blaming him for the fraud, but they haven’t explained how someone changed his registered mobile and email or made a virtual debit card without his knowledge. These changes, the lawyer said, can only happen if someone has the debit card details and OTP — and the customer never shared those with anyone.

Justice Vikas Mahajan of the Delhi High Court asked RBI, the Ombudsman, and HDFC Bank to give their replies within four weeks. The next hearing has been scheduled for July 29, 2025.

Download Court Order