KOLKATA: For bank officials, the day did not start when the shutters were rolled up on Thursday morning but much earlier. As if the planning and the slew of video-conferences weren’t enough, some officials had to stay back at office till late on Wednesday night to ensure the vaults were replenished with cash and then return to work early on Thursday. But all these didn’t seem to prepare them for what would follow.A senior manager at the Dharmatolla branch of a nationalized bank could not believe his ears when a middle-aged man barged into his chamber in the morning, introduced himself as a businessman and proposed to deposit Rs 75 crore in cash. “First, I thought I heard it wrong and asked him how much money he had with him. He repeated that he wanted my help to deposit Rs 75 crore in cash. He also assured me he would compensate me for my risks involved in such an illegal transaction. I showed him the door. But it was a nerve-racking moment in my 25-year banking career,” he said.Another bank manager, working for a nationalized bank in the southern suburbs, did not even know how to react when he received a similar proposal and more. Sanjay Mitra had to take help of the local police as a customer threatened him for refusing to accept Rs 49 crore in cash. “He wanted to deposit Rs 49 crore in various names and sought my help to carry out the transaction. He even offered me a ‘good amount’. But when I refused, he got furious and threatened me with dire consequences,” Mitra said. Besides, bank managers had a harrowing time, placating anxious clients, getting fidgety with every moment of delay. “There were times we had to seek replenishment. This caused delays,” a bank manager said.By afternoon, the managers and their colleagues were visibly fatigued, having worked almost the entire night before. “We were tired as we had to work for 18 hours at a stretch. Handling depositors’ rush is something that we are trained to do. But handling strange people with the request of depositing black money in crores is something that is also stressful. I have received requests from at least 10 people who offered me ‘good amounts’ if I let them deposit crores of rupees in Rs 500s and Rs 1,000s,” said a senior manager of the bank.Apprehensive of trouble, the Reserve Bank of India directed bank authorities to instal extra CCTV cameras. “RBI officials in plain clothes and intelligence department officials were deputed to keep a watch on illegal transactions,” a bank official said. Some banks also sought police protection to avoid any untoward incident.Another manager at a private bank said, “We were also alerted about bulk transactions in tranches with fraudulent documents. Whatever delay, we had were because we tried to ensure the peo-ple who deposited bulk cash had adequate documents. We insisted for valid ID cards and retained a photocopy for our records.”