How SBI's mistake left Lotus Hospital technician in deep financial crisis

Hyderabad: A small-time technician at Lotus Children Hospital, Lakdikapool, thanked his stars when Rs 10 lakh was credited to his account. M Krishna thought that he received the money under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheme. Over the moon, he immediately rushed to clear his debt.

However, his world came crashing down when police knocked on his door and asked him to return the money.

In fact, an employee of a State Bank of India, Rangareddy District collectorate branch at Lakdikapool inadvertently transferred around Rs 1.5 crore into the account of 15 employees of Lotus Children Hospital, Lakdikapool.

Transactions of 14 employees were reversed. M Krishna, who received Rs 9.90 lakh into his account did not return as he had utilized the amount immediately.

Police later registered a case against him under section 403 (Dishonest misappropriation of property) of IPC for utilizing the Dalit Bandhu Scheme money, which was transferred into his bank account by clerical mistake.

SBI at Lakdikapool received a transfer mandate of Rs. 7,44,00,000 from Ranga Reddy District SC Service Co-Operative Development, which is Telangana state government deposit of Dalit Bandhu Scheme on April 26.

"Due to clerical error, 15 transactions were wrongly credited to employees of Lotus Children Hospital, Lakdikapool, Hyderabad. All except one of the wrongly credited transactions have now been reversed. M. Krishna utilized the funds 9,90,000 which is a credit to his account and is refusing to return them," said Palagiri Kranthi Veer in his complaint to Saifabad police.

The bank said that on several requests M.Krishna did not return the funds. After the complaint, the police filed a case against him.

"I had taken around Rs 12.5 lakh loan from different people. When I received the amount, I thought I got the money because of Prime Minister's Scheme. I repaid Rs 10 lakh to my lenders," said M Krishna to NewsMeter.

M Krishna added that when the bank contacted him to return the money, he did not have anything in the account. "I offered a land parcel paper to the bank as collateral, but they refused. As of now, I got another loan from private money lenders. I have returned Rs 6.7 lakh to the bank," said M Krishna.

He added that he will return the remaining money within a few days. "I am a technician at a private hospital, I don't have savings. They have filed a case against me. On top of that, I have to go to the people to ask for the money. It was the bank's mistake who did it but I am suffering because of their mistake," said M Krishna.