If this was going to happen, then it was going to happen in India. A branch of the State Bank of India in Alampur town in Madhya Pradesh’ Bhind district opened a bank account for Hukam Singh. Sound simple enough?
The State Bank of India kinda of messed things up though! The bank account number was given to two different Hukam Singh’s, so one account, one name, two different individuals living miles apart!
One Hukam Singh had his salary was paid in on a regular basis, the other Hukam Singh who was wondering where this money was coming from kept spending it. Hukam Singh, who was spending the money, was asked where did he think the money was coming from he replied: “I thought that the Narendra Modi government was putting money into my account.”
“Our branch has issued the same bank account number to two persons named Hukum Singh due to a clerical mistake. One Hukum Singh, a resident of Rurai village, was depositing money in this account, while the other Hukum Singh, a resident of Rauni village, has been withdrawing from it for the past one year,” SBI Alampur Branch manager Rajesh Sonkar told PTI on Friday.
“The case was detected when Hukum Singh of Rurai village checked his account on October 16 this year, and found large withdrawals. We found that Hukum Singh of Rauni village withdrew this money,” Sonkar added.
Hukum Singh from Rauni who made the withdrawals, in his defence, claimed, “this is carelessness on the part of the bank”.
Hukum Singh from Rurai said, “I had opened this bank account in 2016 and have been regularly depositing money. I thought of a withdrawal to buy a plot of land. That’s when I found someone had already withdrawn Rs 89,000 from my account.”
He claimed he was yet to get his money back despite several visits to the bank.