A teenage girl in Bihar's Madhepura district briefly believed she had become one of the richest people around after her bank account showed a balance of more than Rs 759 crore, before the truth turned out to be nothing more than a technical glitch.
A routine Rs 800 withdrawal turns into a shock
The incident took place in Padokia village of Gwalpara block, in ward number eight. Rupa Kumari, the 17 year old daughter of Anil Das, holds an account at the Central Bank of India. On Saturday, she went to a CSP centre in her own village to withdraw Rs 800 through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System, commonly known as AEPS. The transaction itself went through without any problem and Rupa walked away with her Rs 800 in hand. The real surprise came only afterwards.
The receipt that stunned the family
When the CSP operator handed over the transaction receipt, it correctly showed the Rs 800 withdrawal, the bank's name and confirmation that the transaction had succeeded. But instead of a small remaining balance, the receipt listed the account balance as Rs 7,59,69,51,951.16, more than Rs 759 crore. For a few moments, the teenager and her family were left stunned by the figure. Family members later said the account is a minor's account that usually carries a very small balance, and that only two earlier withdrawals of Rs 5,000 each had ever been made from it. The mismatch between the tiny, routine transaction and the astronomical balance figure quickly became the talk of the village, with people gathering to hear about the family's sudden overnight fortune.
Bank blames a software update, dream of instant riches ends
As word spread, the family began to suspect fraud or some serious error in the account and approached the bank demanding to know the correct balance. Animesh Anshu, assistant branch manager of the Central Bank of India branch in Bihariganj, explained that the bank's system software had been updated two to three days earlier, and that this update was the reason incorrect balances were showing up in some customer accounts. He described it as purely a technical problem that would correct itself within the next two to three days. Once the real picture became clear, Rupa's brief dream of being a crorepati collapsed, and she was left heartbroken.
Bihar's second such case in a matter of days
This is not an isolated case in Bihar. Just days earlier, a similar glitch was reported in neighbouring Supaul district, where an anganwadi sahayika who had gone to withdraw Rs 2,100 found her account showing a balance of Rs 740 crore. That case, too, had become a major talking point in its area before being traced back to a technical fault. With two such incidents surfacing in quick succession in different districts, questions are now being raised about the reliability of the banking software update behind both mismatches.
