NEW DELHI: Nirav Modi may have been an abberation in PNB's books but the bank, which is at the centre of a Rs 11,300 crore scam, had a few loyal customers too. One of them was India's former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri Best known for his austere lifestyle, Shastri's widow had to sell her pension to repay a Rs 5,000 car loan from the bank that is now trying to recover its dues from Modi."We went to St Columba's School on a tonga. Once in a while we used the office car but my father did not allow us to use it regularly for any kind of private work. There was a demand at home that we should buy a car," Anil Shastri , a senior Congress politician and the former PM's son, told TNN. The story goes back to 1964. The former PM's family was looking for a drive. After enquiries by VS Venkatraman, the special assistant to the PM, the Shastris came to know that a new Fiat would cost them around Rs 12,000. The family, however, had only Rs 7,000 in the bank.Shastri applied for a Rs 5,000 loan which was sanctioned the same day.But soon tragedy struck the family. Shastri passed away on January 11, 1966 in Tashkent where he had gone to sign the declaration to settle the 1965 war between India and Pakistan. The loan remained unpaid."It was repaid by my mother from the pension she received after my father's death," Anil told TNN. The car in question, a cream coloured 1964 model Fiat with the impressive number, DLE 6, is now an essential part of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial at 1, Motilal Nehru Marg, in Delhi. Founded in 1894, PNB was inspired by the idea to start a swadeshi bank during the British Raj.Among its early board of directors was Lala Lajpat Rai, who played a distinguished role in India's freedom struggle.