“It is yet another case of unfair trade practice on part of the bank in disbursing the loan to a third party instead of the complainant and thereby causing a loss of Rs 11,000 to the complainant and benefiting their stooges by giving them benefit of the aforesaid amount,” the forum ruled. The forum also accused the bank of teaming up with the Car Bazaar in order to serve their vested interests.

Surjit Kumar Gupta said in his complaint that in November 2005, an ICICI executive approached him with the proposal to finance his old car at a low rate of interest. He was assured a loan of Rs 1 lakh with equated monthly installments (EMI) of 36 months. He was then handed over a cheque of Rs 91,000 with an EMI of Rs 3,560 every month.  The complainant was regularly paying the instalment and on not being satisfied with the service of the bank, he approached it to clear the whole amount. His outstanding amount was shown at Rs 46,218 in October 2008, which according to him was highly inflated.

The complainant asked for the explanation but neither the bank returned the excessive amount nor gave any satisfactory reply.

In its reply, the bank stated that the full amount of loan sanctioned was Rs 1,02,000 as availed by the complainant. It was denied that the bank made a short disbursal of Rs 91,000.