Bank credits billions in woman account

Kanpur: What if one fine day you suddenly become the richest person of the world without doing anything?

Strange, but possible. Something like this actually happened in UP’s Kanpur.

In a strange quirk of fate, a domestic help living in a city slum become the richest woman on the planet on Friday, when billions of rupees were transferred to her bank account mistakenly by a public sector bank. However, her fortune short-lived when the bank froze her account after realizing the mistake.

The incident happened with a domestic helper, Urmila Yadav, who lives in Kanpur’s  slum area. “I have my account at the Vikas Nagar UPSIDC branch of State Bank of India. I got the shock of my life on Friday when I accessed my bank passbook to check the balance,” she said.

“On July 24, my guarantor Lalta Prasad handed me my SBI passbook. I was shocked to see that an amount of ‘Rs 95711698647130’ was credited to my savings bank account. After finding such a huge amount entered in my passbook, I immediately went to the bank with my guarantor. To my surprise, the computer at the bank also showed the same amount of ‘Rs 95711698647130’ in my account,” said Urmila.

After the glitch came into light, the bank officials immediately apprised their seniors who in turn froze the account. Rakesh Kumar Khatri, manager of the SBI branch where Urmila maintains the account, confirmed the development and said that the bank has withdrawn the money from Urmila Yadav’s account.

“We will check how this happened and who made the blunder,” said Khatri. “The bank has now activated Urmila’s account after rectifying the error. The computer data is now displaying the correct balance of Rs 2,000 in her saving account,” he added.

“Now, they have deleted everything and there is no such record of the episode in my account statement,” Urmila said, adding that the only proof she had of her fleeting wealth lies in printouts and bank statements.

“On June 23, I had opened a savings account under Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojna by depositing Rs 1,000 with the SBI’s UPSIDC branch in Vikas Nagar. Similarly, on June 30, I further deposited a sum of Rs 1000 in the account. Now, this is what all remains with me,” she said.