For a brief, blissful period, Vivek Chaturvedi, a quality control officer who earns Rs 12,500 per month, was a crorepati—with Rs 48 crore in his bank account.
Or at least that is what his ATM transaction slip said.
On Thursday, Chaturvedi's brother Abhishek Chaturvedi went to a
bank ATM to withdraw money.
"After the withdrawal I was shocked to see that the available balance printed on the ATM slip was Rs 48.70 crore. I immediately informed by brother who holds the bank account. I hold a add-on credit card,” Abhishek Chaturvedi told HT over the phone.
After his younger brother informed him of the incident, Vivek tried to withdraw money from an ATM in Dwarka in southwest Delhi. "It showed me the same balance," said Chaturvedi. "I was stunned to see such a huge amount in my savings account. I tried contacting the bank's customer care center and they told me to get in touch with the branch at Ghaziabad," Vivek
said.
Vivek--who holds a savings account at Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch at Ghaziabad--was not to remain a millionaire for long.
When HT contacted the bank to probe the statement made by the account holder, officials dismissed Chaturvedi's claim and put down the matter to a "technical error reported in the printing of the ATM slip."
Officials said there was no such amount in Chaturvedi's account, as the Core Banking System (CBS) showed.
"There was no technical error in the Core Banking system (CBS) accounts. His actual balance stood at Rs 23,487, which was correctly shown in the books," said Vineet Jain, AGM Punjab National Bank (Meerut Circle).
"There was an error in the ATM slip printing which was reported and identified at 9.30 am and rectified at around 12.30 pm. There is no such entry of ambiguous amount in his account and we have checked it thoroughly."
Jain appeared entraged at Chaturvedi's claim.
"This person has created a panic situation out of this technical printing error and should have approached the bank to find out the exact reason. We may go in for legal action against him."