S

hveta Sharma says she had transferred money to the ICICI Bank from her US account, expecting it to be invested in fixed deposits. But she alleges that a bank official created "fake accounts, forged her signature, took out debit cards and cheque books in her name" to withdraw money from her accounts. "He gave me fake statements, created a fake email ID in my name and manipulated my mobile number in the bank records so I won't get any withdrawal notifications," she told the BBC. A spokesman for the bank admitted to the BBC that "indeed the fraud had happened" but said that the ICICI "is a bank of repute which holds trillions of rupees in deposits from millions of customers". ADVERTISEMENT "Whoever is involved will be punished," he added. Ms Sharma and her husband, who returned to India in 2016 after living for decades in the US and Hong Kong, met a banker through a friend. As the interest rate on bank deposits in the US was negligible, he advised Ms Sharma to move her money to India where fixed deposits were offering an interest of 5.5% to 6%. She opened an NRE account meant for non-resident Indians on his advice after visiting the ICICI's branch in old Gurugram near the capital, Delhi, and in 2019, began transferring money into it from her US account. "Over a period of four years from September 2019 to December 2023, we deposited our entire life savings of around 135m rupees in the bank," she said, adding that "with interest, the sum would have grown to more than 160m rupees". She said she never suspected anything was amiss because the branch manager "would give me proper receipts for all the deposits on bank's stationery, regularly send me email statements from his ICICI account and sometimes even come over with folders of documents". The fraud came to light in early January when a new employee at the bank offered to get Ms Sharma better returns on her money. It was then that she discovered that all her fixed deposits had vanished. There was also an overdraft of 25m rupees taken on one of the deposits.