The $9.8 Billion Debacle

You are a middle class schoolteacher from a small town in the eastern part of India. Your monthly income is a mediocre Rs. 35,000 ($700). As part of your weekly routine, you log in to your bank account on a sedate Sunday evening expecting to find a balance of not more than Rs. 10000 ($200). Imagine your bafflement then upon seeing an additional sum of $9.8 billion (Rs. 496 billion) credited into your account, an astronomical amount even by the standards of the rich.

This is exactly the predicament that Mr. Parijat Saha, a resident of the town of Balurghat in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal, found himself in on the evening of 15th January, 2012. Stupefied and flabbergasted, he immediately reported the anomaly to the guilty party – the State Bank of India (SBI). Officials at the bank were initially prevented from commenting on or discussing the issue with the media, but well placed sources said the funds were “uncleared” and couldn’t have been used by Mr. Saha.

However, Mr. Tapan Mitra, the bank’s assistant general manager was quoted on hindustantimes.com as saying, “The amount was merely a transaction that was shown to have been made from his (Saha) account. The amount was never credited to his account. Such an occurrence is normal and usually happens because of fault of the internet service provider.” In addition, he said, “The bank internet system has various layers of firewall security to prevent such mistakes.

That is why the amount was not credited to his account, it merely appeared as a transaction and the account balance was not affected.” The bank – motto “Safe Banking with SBI” – had alerted both its regional headquarters in Calcutta and the national headquarters in Mumbai and an official probe has now been instituted in order to identify what actually went wrong and take necessary action. In the meantime, Mr. Saha withdrew the Rs. 10000 belonging to him leaving the uncleared billions for the bank to take back.

Through it all, it’s not the bank’s ineptness that’s shocking here, it’s the teacher’s honesty that’s the true news for me. While others would undertake the sorts of scams most of us can’t even begin to imagine, here’s a man who made an honest effort to return the money and take only what truly belonged to him. How many such people can you come across in India? In light of all the corruption scandals of recent times, this piece of news is like a breath of fresh air and reinforces our belief in the basic goodness of people and humanity. Hell, the guy deserves the entire $9.8 billion as a reward for his honesty. Let him keep it, I say.

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1 Comment

  1. Nothing but a show of mere sheepish nature outwardly but inside he will pray for the failure in tracing of the legal owner of money.
    Just a mere publicity and sympathy stunt…………………..
    Moreover see that he grabbed all public and media attention quickly and made his character clear in people’s psychology…..
    Don’t be carried away by that sheepish looks, he is actually a fox……… 

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