india

Updated: Apr 30, 2019 15:59 IST

Panchayat secretary Rasraj Mahato in Moubhandar under East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand on Saturday found out that his bank account has been locked and credited with Rs 99.87 crore from an unknown source.

“I received an SMS on my mobile that my account has been locked as soon as I tried to withdraw money from the ATM. The ATM also printed a slip which showed the balance of Rs 99.87 crore in my account. I was puzzled as to where such huge amount came from and I immediately informed other panchayat secretaries about it,” Sanjay Kumar Das, block development officer (BDO) quoted Mahato.

Mahato could not verify as the banks were closed on Saturday and Sunday.

The development had put the district administration on alert in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections and possibility of money being transferred to different accounts for electoral malpractice to influence the voters. Ghatsial sub-divisional officer (SDO) Amar Kumar ordered the Ghatsila BDO and authorities of the Ghatsila branch of Bank of India (BoI) to probe the matter on Monday.

“I have asked the BDO to probe the matter and asked for a report from him and the bank authorities,” the SDO said. Bank branch manager Sanjeev Kumar Sinha could not be contacted.

But when Ghatsial BDO sent him to Ghatsila BoI branch on Monday, it was found that there was no entry of any transaction in his passbook.

“We checked his passbook and it showed no transaction via his account during last few days. But the ATM slip he had brought did show some balance amount of Rs 99.87 crore. Bank authorities also said there was no such transaction and the ATM might have mistakenly printed the total balance,” Sanjay Kumar Das, Ghatsial BDO said.