Mumbai: As many as 85 victims of cyber financial fraud have received relief through two upgraded digital portals — Money Restoration Module (MRM) and Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) — in four days.
These platforms helped return a combined Rs 10.9 lakh to victims’ bank accounts, without them needing to keep visiting offices, hire a lawyer, or approach a court to recover the money they lost. The new MRM and GRM, initiated on June 12 by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), were introduced in the Mumbai cyber police on June 14 following a one-day training session for the officials who will handle these cases.
GRM functions as a time-bound and accountable system for resolving grievances linked to wrongly frozen accounts. It also gives account holders a fair chance to present their side by enabling direct coordination between the account holder, the bank and the police.
To ensure both portals are applied properly, basic training has been completed for officers and staff from every cyber police station, along with all local police stations under Mumbai’s jurisdiction. With this arrangement, direct coordination will now be set up among the police (investigating agencies), banks (financial institutions) and the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) at the national level, so that legal processes can be completed within a specified timeframe.
“A total of 85 victims have benefited in four days (June 14 to 17) after the mechanism initiated by the govt on June 12. The two updated digital portals, MRM and GRM, have been launched through ‘I4C’. Incorrectly frozen bank accounts will be unfrozen. During the investigation of cyber criminals, some innocent citizens’ bank accounts are often ‘held’ (lien) or ‘frozen’ due to suspicion or technical reasons. To resolve the difficulties of such genuine account holders, the GRM portal will be operational,” said DCP (cyber) Bajrang Bansode.
“If the held amount is up to Rs 50,000 in one bank account, no FIR or court order is required. The money will be refunded directly based on the police report/indemnity bond via the MRM portal. If the total frozen amount is more than Rs 50,000 but distributed across different bank accounts and does not exceed Rs 50,000 in any single bank account, no FIR or court order is required. A swift refund will be processed based on the police report. If the held amount exceeds Rs 50,000 in a single bank account, lodging an FIR is mandatory under the rules. Once the FIR is registered, the entire remaining legal refund process will be completed through this MRM portal. An indemnity bond is taken from the victim by the cyber cop if the amount exceeds Rs 50,000. There is no need for an indemnity bond if it is below Rs 50,000, where the victim has to submit their PAN and Aadhaar cards with the bank for processing,” said DCP Bansode.
This upgraded digital framework has been developed to ensure that money lost to cybercrime reaches affected citizens in a straightforward and transparent manner. Cyber police have urged citizens that in case of fraud, they should not panic or give in to pressure, and should immediately call the 1930 toll-free helpline. Citizens have also been advised to use both new portals and the helpline whenever required.
“The transparent and dynamic process is a time-bound and accountable mechanism for grievance redressal regarding incorrectly frozen accounts. In this process, monitoring is done at the level of bank officials, investigating officers (IO), district/state grievance redressal officers (GRO) and directly the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). After verification through video conferencing (VC), a decision is taken to immediately ‘unfreeze’ eligible accounts,” said the cyber officer.
