Bank error gives farmer 965 crore

A farmer from Nehla village in Fatehabad, Haryana, was shocked out of his wits to see Rs 964.64 crore deposited in his Punjab National Bank account when he logged into his e-bank account last Friday.

However, Sushil Kumar's happiness lasted only 40 minutes as bank officials realized their folly and quickly made amends. Sushil's bank account was sealed by officials who until Monday were struggling to track down the error.

"I had accessed my account to check the balance after a friend deposited Rs 40,000 in my account. But my eyes almost popped out when I saw Rs 964.64 crore against my name," said Sushil.

Unable to believe his eyes, Sushil ran to the nearest ATM to doublecheck the sudden downpour of fortune that seemed to be his.

"To my utter surprise, the ATM slip, too, showed the unbelievable amount was transferred to my account," said Sushil. Unfortunately for him, PNB officials had realized the grave error. It took bank officials 40 minutes to reach Sushil's village and jolt him out of his reverie.

"The first thing they told me when I opened the door was that they were freezing my account. They didn't even say sorry for the great disappointment I suffered," said Sushil, half in jest.

PNB Fatehabad chief manager BR Sharma confirmed the mistaken monetary transaction and added that they decided to freeze Sushil's account as a team from the bank was trying to establish whether the error was human or technical.

"We are probing how exactly it happened. We have also taken back the money from Sushil's account," said Sharma.

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