A labourer from Uttar Pradesh’s Basti district Shiv Prasad Nishad got a pleasant shock recently when he learnt that he had received ₹221 crore in his bank account. Interestingly, he learnt about this bounty only after receiving an income tax (I-T) notice.
He learnt about this when he received a tax notice informing him about the huge inflow in his bank account.
He said that he had lost his PAN card in 2019 and somebody perhaps misused the same to open an account in his name, and later deposited money into it.
Although this was a rare instance, there have been a few similar cases where village folks received a bounty out of the blue.
₹15 lakh from Modiji?
Similarly, a small farmer from Paithan Taluka in Aurangabad district Dnyaneshwar Janardhan Awate received ₹15 lakh in February last year.
He believed that this was a bounty from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He thought this to be the same ₹15 lakh that — according to opposition parties — was promised by PM Modi to every citizen of this country once the black money is brought back from overseas accounts.
This was a mistake wherein his bank account was mistakenly given to transfer the fund allocated to the Pimpalwadi gram panchayat under the 15th Finance Commission.
He was later told to give the money back which he had spent on the construction of his village house.
There was a similar incident where a 30-year-old tutor Ranjeet Das of Bihar’s Bakhtiyar village allegedly received ₹5.5 lakh in his account due to bank error in 2021. He refused to return the money initially even as several notices were served to him.
He also thought the money was sent by PM Narendra Modi as the first instalment of the total ₹15 lakh he had promised to every individual during an election campaign in Bihar, he reportedly told police.
Boys receive ₹960 crore
Another bizarre case of mistaken identity happened when two boys from Bihar’s Pastiya village Guruchandra Vishwas and Asit Kumar discovered that their bank accounts were credited with a total of ₹960 crore.
Vishwas’ account was credited with ₹60 crore, Kumar’s account with ₹900 crore. The boys hold the account in Uttar Bihar Gramin Bank.
A probe was ordered as to how the money got deposited while the branch manager ordered it to stop the withdrawal of money.
Likewise, Bihari Lal, a labourer from Kannauj in Aug 2022 was taken aback when he discovered that he had a total balance of ₹2,700 crore when he went to withdraw ₹100 from his Jan Dhan account.
But his happiness was momentary as when he went to the branch to check his balance, he was informed that the balance in his account was just ₹126.
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Updated: 25 Oct 2023, 09:18 AM IST