A Jharkhand man gets Rs 2 lakh in account through banking mistake, arrested

A man was arrested in West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand on March 24 for withdrawing money from a woman's bank account that was linked to his Aadhaar account by a banking mistake.

When the world was hit by Covid-19, 42-year-old beedi worker Jeetrai Samant realised that his Aadhaar Card was linked to a bank account of a woman through a Common Service Centre, physical facilities for delivery of the government's public services, welfare schemes, etc to rural and remote locations, Indian Express reported.

However, a complaint was filed by Jharkhand Rajya Gramin Bank from an account holder named Shrimati Laguri who claimed that her money was disappearing from her account. Then the manager, upon writing to the concerned departments, found out about the banking mistake.

"Samant was arrested on March 24. There was a mistake and his Aadhaar got linked to someone else's account, but he did not return the amount. He allegedly paid a bribe at the CSC point so no one else would get to know. (When police issued a notice about the issue) he wrote a letter to us saying he believed Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent him money," the daily quoted Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Shekhar as saying.

As he did not return the money, an FIR was lodged against him in October under IPC section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) in the district's Muffasil police station.

Bank manager Manish Kumar told The Indian Express, "Earlier, Bank of India used to sponsor the Gramin Bank, and now SBI does it. So the entire data was merged with SBI in April 2019, and it was during this process that Samant's Aadhaar number got accidentally linked with someone else's bank account. The woman did not complain earlier, else we could have stopped it."

He told the cops that he might have received the money from the government during Covid. He said, "During the first lockdown, everyone in the village was checking the amount in their Aadhaar-linked account numbers as it was announced that people would receive something. I put my thumb on the reading machine and it showed a balance as Rs 1,12,000. I rushed to the Gramin Bank, but could not find any money having been credited there. When I asked them about it, they told me the government would have sent the amount."