Court dismisses plea alleging threats calls from ICICI

A woman's plea dismissed against associate VP

PTI | February 13, 2012



In a relief to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, a Delhi court has dismissed a woman's plea accusing one of its top officials of calling her up and threatening her to withdraw her complaint against the firm from a consumer forum.

Civil Judge Swati Katiyar dismissed north Delhi resident Satinder Kaur's plea against the insurance firm's associate vice president, saying she failed to back it up with any evidence.

"Apart from oral allegations levelled by the plaintiff, there is no evidence whatsoever on record to prove the same.

Accordingly, the plaintiff has failed to discharge the onus placed upon her. Resultantly, the issues are decided against the plaintiff," the court said

The woman had moved the court alleging that the firm's top executive's call caused immense harassment and "mental agony" to her and sought compensation of Rs 2 lakh from the firm for causing the "serious shock" to her.

Satinder had said she was a "semi illiterate" housewife and had been induced by an employee of ICICI's insurance arm to invest in its pension scheme and that she had paid Rs 1.2 lakh for it in two instalments by March 2003.

She had contended that she was told by the ICICI official that she could withdraw her money whenever she wished to terminate the policy and that she would still be given a minimum interest of 8 per cent per annum but in 2006, when she wished to withdraw her money, Rs 4,566 was deducted from the amount she had invested.

She had claimed that after she filed a complaint before a Delhi District Consumer Redressal Forum, the then associate vice president of the company advanced threats to her thrice between October 2006 and March 2007, through phone calls, asking her to "withdraw the complaint or else to face dire consequences".

The woman had sought Rs two lakhs as compensation, claiming that she "had to go through sleepless nights which had adversely affected her health" and a huge amount had to be spent on her treatment.

The ICICI, however, had refuted her claims, saying she had filed the suit only to harm the company's reputation and that any threatening phone calls were made to her by any of its employees.

The judge dismissed the suit holding that Satinder Kaur had failed to prove her claims and that she also did not specify the basis on which the damages were assessed as Rs two lakhs.

 

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