It came as a rude shock to a small scale farmer from Pilibhit, in UP when he got to know that he was the guarantor for billionaire Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines.

BCCL

What was even more shocking to him was the fact that all these years he was a director of the now defunct airlines.

The small scale farmer, who owns around eight acres of land, came to know about his position only in December when his two bank accounts were frozen as he was the guarantor of Kingfisher Airlines loans. In his two accounts with Bank of Baroda, Singh had Rs 4,000 and Rs 1,217 each.

Hindustan Times

“I have heard his name but never met him. I have no idea how I was made the director of his company", Singh said.

"Because the bank froze my accounts, I can't avail any government-sponsored scheme. I was forced to sell my entire wheat crop to private traders at very low prices. I could not get MSP because payment for that is directly made to the bank account, which in my case is frozen," he added.

The bank branch manager said Singh had been operating both the bank accounts for the last 8 years and they always found him absolutely genuine, but the account was frozen after they got a letter from the regional office.

Moneycontrol/ Representational Image

Apparently the bank confused Singh's name with Manmohan Singh Kapur, one of the nine directors of Kingfisher Airlines along with Vijay Mallya and his son Siddharth Mallya.

According to Kingfisher's annual reports from 2011-12 and 2012-13, Manmohan Singh Kapur was an independent director in the company since 2009.

Kapur retired as chairman and managing director of Vijaya Bank after nearly decades working in the sector.