ATM rains cash, dispenses ₹500 notes instead of ₹100
People who walked into an ATM in Deeg were in for a pleasant surprise when it started dispensing ₹500 notes instead of ₹100
People who walked into an ATM in Deeg were in for a pleasant surprise when it started dispensing ₹500 notes instead of ₹100.
On July 24, customers were rendered speechless on finding that they got five times more than the amount they had entered into the machine.
The glitch left the Axis Bank’s Deeg branch poorer by more than ₹2 lakh within two hours.
Soon, a rumour started that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was giving out free cash, finally making good on his promise that every citizen will get ₹15 lakh each, once black money is brought back to the country.
“After the news spread, people in large numbers queued up outside the ATM and received more than five times the money than what they wanted to withdraw,” Gaurav Soni, a resident of Deeg told HT.
Bank officials said that there was a mistake while loading money into the ATM machine.
Branch manager Vipul Khandelwal said that the mistake was made by the ATM vendor company’s staff who loaded ₹500 notes in the ₹100 slot.
“Senior officials will consider legal action against the vendor, who failed to carry out proper duties while loading money in the ATM. It’s not the responsibility of bank officials,” Khandelwal said.
Most of those who received the extra money are customers of different banks and Axis Bank officials are trying to find out their identities to recover the money.
A daunting task is now ahead of the bank officials as they have to find out the addresses of the people who withdrew money and contact them and urge them to return the cash. The bank staff will face a challenging task contacting people who live in isolated places in the district.
Eyewitnesses said that after the news spread people rushed to the ATM but a lot of them who reached late had to return disappointed as by the time the machine had been made inactive by the bank.
In January, a similar incident had taken place in Tonk. An ATM there had dispensed ₹2,000 notes in place of ₹100 notes.
Jitesh Diwakar, a resident of Tonk, had received ₹70,000 in place of ₹3,500 he had keyed in.
However, Diwakar was the only person who chose to inform the Bank of Baroda about the malfunctioning cash-dispensing machine – all others before him went home with extra cash, thanking their lucky stars.
But by the time the bank officials had shut down the ATM near the collector’s office, it had dispensed ₹6.76 lakh. And 10-odd people are believed to have got excess cash.