Kolkata: How does it feel to suddenly receive Rs 100 crore in your bank account?Not good, as Kashmira Sheikh — a poor zari worker from Kultali in South 24 Parganas, more than 100 km from Kolkata — is finding out.The 36-year-old has been gripped by fear and panic, and her life has been turned upside down, since she learnt during a routine visit to her bank last Saturday that her account had been credited with Rs 99,99,99,997 — just Rs 3 short of Rs 100 crore.“I have no idea how so much money landed in my account,” said a stunned Kashmira, who lives in an asbestos-roofed house at Kirtankhola village in the Kundakhali-Godabar gram panchayat area of Kultali. The family gets by on the meagre earnings of the woman, who does zari work at home, and her husband, who makes bags in Kolkata. The couple has three children.“I had booked an LPG cylinder. I went to the bank (Kultali Jamtala branch of PNB) to check whether the subsidy for the cylinder had come to my account. That’s when I learnt that almost Rs 100 crore had been deposited in my account,” recalled Kashmira.“The agency that delivered the cylinder had no clue how the money came. We went to the bank manager, only to be told, ‘We can’t say anything. Please leave.’ I am scared. We are poor people who earn a living through hard labour.”Feeling helpless and not knowing who to turn to for help, Kashmira and her husband again went to the bank. The couple alleged that the bank officials again dismissed their concerns, blaming an accounting error or a technical glitch for the Rs 100 crore showing up in their account.Adding to the couple’s growing panic, all transactions on their lone bank account was frozen. “Thanks to the freeze, we cannot withdraw money even for our daily needs. And we don’t have any other bank account to help us tide over the crisis. All this because a huge sum of money, which we had never asked for, was credited to our account,” said Kashmira.The couple also lodged a complaint with Kultali police station.Bank officials, refusing to be quoted, attributed the error to a server malfunction or some other technical glitch and indicated that the issue was under review. No statement has been issued by the bank.Kashmira’s travail is among several such instances reported from across Kolkata as well as the rest of the state. On Friday, TOI had reported that police, a bank and the income tax department launched a joint investigation after an unexplained sum of Rs 47 crore was credited to the bank account of a small-scale cloud kitchen owner in Beleghata.The account holder, identified as Nupur Gupta, runs a home-cooked food delivery business. She reported the matter to Beleghata police station. Similar incidents have also been reported from north Bengal.
