The Delhi High Court has restrained unidentified individuals from misusing the Kotak Mahindra Bank and Kotak Securities brands to allegedly dupe investors through fraudulent websites, social media accounts and messaging groups.
The court has directed social media platforms and other intermediaries to take down the identified infringing links and ordered the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to facilitate the blocking of access to the websites.
Justice Vikas Mahajan granted an interim injunction in a trademark infringement suit filed by Kotak Mahindra Bank and another group entity against unknown persons and others. The relief will remain in force until the next date of hearing.
The court directed the unidentified individuals, referred to as John Doe defendants, to stop using the Kotak, Kotak Bank and Kotak Securities names, logos and other identifying features without authorisation. They have also been restrained from impersonating the bank's managing directors, chief executives, employees or authorised representatives across digital platforms, websites, mobile applications and social media.
Kotak group alleged that, unauthorised operators were using these identities to run fraudulent investment schemes and pass them off as genuine offerings of their group. The bank told the court that it had received more than 100 complaints from clients who allegedly lost between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh each by transferring money to bank accounts operated by the fraudsters.