Balwinder Singh, a taxi driver in Punjab, was in for a shock when he discovered that Rs 98,05,95,12,231 or nearly Rs 9,806 crore had been credited to his Jan Dhan account in State Bank of Patiala (SBoP) on November 4.
However, the amount was debited from his account a day later putting an end to his celebration before it could even begin.
"I made many rounds of the bank, but nobody listened to me. Instead they kept my passbook with them on November 7, and issued a new passbook without the gigantic entry. I had opened the account under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). My balance usually is around Rs 3,000," Singh told the Hindustan Times.
Branch manager Ravinder Kumar said that officials from the Income Tax Department were investigating the case. Income Tax officials from Barnala, Sangrur and Patiala led by Assistant Commissioner Pritpal Singh investigated the matter until midnight.
However, lead bank manager Sandeep Garg had a simple explanation for the error: "The account holder happens to be a designated vendor for the bank. While passing a credit entry of Rs 200, an assistant manager (accounts) wrongly inserted the bank's 11-digit internal banking general ledger account number in the amount column. The mistake was noticed the next day, following which the entry was reversed."
An official told the daily that the bank officials had acted irresponsibly and did not even attend to the man when he visited the branch. They did not even inform the account holder about the freak error.
