US senior cheated of Rs 2.68 crore by bank staff; FIR registered after this paper’s expose; the complaint names the bank’s relationship manager, his wife, and others for allegedly cheating the senior citizen.
Elisabeth Iler at her residence in Andheri. Iler has alleged that she was defrauded of a large sum of money by bank officials. Pic/Satej Shinde
Two months after mid-day reported on the case of Elisabeth Iler, a 75-year-old American national living in Andheri, who was allegedly defrauded of Rs 2.68 crore by officials of a private bank, the DN Nagar police have finally registered an FIR. The complaint names the bank’s relationship manager, his wife, and others for allegedly cheating the senior citizen.
Iler expressed her gratitude to mid-day for bringing her plight to light, which helped move long-pending files and prompted the police to file an FIR under Sections 406, 420, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Since the alleged incident occurred before the BNS came into effect, the case was registered under the IPC.
“I thank mid-day for telling my story when no one else would. Without their voice, mine would still be lost. I only ask now, will someone in this country, in this system, finally hear me?” she underlined. “These people didn’t just steal my money. They stole my peace. They stole the quiet security every senior citizen deserves,” said Iler. “They used my trust, my age, and my distance from home as weapons. They drained Rs 2.68 crore, my entire survival fund, through lies, manipulation, and forgery.”
The FIR names Radheya Waghole, his wife Bhavana Ahir, and their organisation. Iler alleges the couple exploited their positions and insider access to extract OTPs, forge authorisations, and reroute her life savings into dubious entities under the false pretext of secure financial investments.
No arrests so far
An officer attached to the DN Nagar police station confirmed that an FIR has been registered against the couple and others under relevant sections of the IPC, but added that “no arrest has been made so far” in the case. Iler, a retired educationist, had moved to Mumbai with her husband and amassed the funds after selling property in Florida in 2019.
“I had placed complete faith in the bank and in the man they gave me as my relationship manager, Radheya Waghole. I believed him and his wife, Bhavana Ahir, when she said my money was safe. I believed the senior manager and the vice president of the private bank when they said the bank would look after me. But I was wrong,” she said.
“When I finally understood what had happened, I gathered the courage to approach the police. An FIR was registered, but till today, there has been no action, no arrests, and not a single rupee has come back. The very bank that enabled this crime has taken no accountability. Their officials remain untouched, and I remain unheard,” she said. “I am not asking for sympathy, I am asking for justice. I want all involved to be held accountable, not just for what they did to my bank account, but to my life,” she said.
Lawyer speaks
Her lawyer, Himanshu Maratkar, said, “This case isn’t just about one senior citizen being defrauded; it is about the complete failure of institutional responsibility by a regulated banking entity. When a relationship manager, an official agent of the bank, defrauds a senior citizen customer of Rs 2.68 crore under the guise of bank-advised investments, the liability is not personal; it is institutional.”
“We demand full compliance with RBI guidelines, full refund of the defrauded funds, prosecution of complicit officials, including the vice president of the bank, and an immediate regulatory audit into the bank’s internal failures. Delay in action is not just unconscionable, it is unlawful,” Maratkar said.
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