Bank
Fraud Case
About 35 years I had a
chance to deal with a fraud case. Husband of an illiterate/semi literate lady
was working in Kuwait. Gulf boom was at its peak during those days. He used to remit money regularly through
Punjab National bank. Whenever she gets
a letter from her husband, (Phones were few and far between those days) she
used to go to bank to find out whether the remittance has come. Every time she gets a reply that the amount
has not been received. After several
visits to the bank, she will be informed that one amount has come, though by
that time 3-4 remittances should have been credited to her account. Foreign exchange was very precious in those
days. Many items were easily available
by giving payment in FE. Advance booking was prevalent for scooters (Motor
cycles were not popular at that time) and one has to wait 7-8 years to mature
his booking. Many people used to book in
the names of all members of the family thinking that if the allotment comes,
they can sell it in black market. Bank Manager
was manipulating her account by swindling the poor illiterate lady. However,
the lady was sure that something was going wrong.
Her neighbour and my colleague
brought the case to me one day. She had some correspondence with higher offices
of the bank but there was no reply.
After studying the case, I was sure that there was a big fraud. I made a strong letter in her name addressed
to The Secretary Banking, (by name) Ministry of Finance. I am fortunate that
when I fight for justice or fight against gross injustice and write letters to
high profile people, Goddess Saraswathi provides me the choicest words. I have to check the meaning of many words, but
in the ultimate analysis I found them perfectly matching.
Within 3 days of my letter,
a special messenger was sent to bank with a direction to Manager that he should
hand over the charge to the next person and proceed on leave. After 2 days, he
was placed under suspension. Within 2
weeks time she got a huge amount being the pending credits of several
remittances. Perhaps due to the fact
that case was taken up at the highest level, she got all the arrears even before
recovering the same from the accused.
My friend told her that all
these happened due to the help of his friend. She expressed a desire to meet
me. I told my friend to bring her
outside the factory. One day he brought her and I went to the reception area to
meet her. I could see the excitement,
ecstasy, happiness and gratitude etc on her partially covered face. She wanted to touch my feet but since she was
much elder to me, I did not allow that. I don’t mind if people who are 15-20
years or more younger to me touching my feet as it is a mark of respect. (There
may be people who want to pull my leg under the guise of touching my feet).It
is pathetic to see politicians allowing or encouraging people who are of their
father’s or even grandfather’s age to touch their feet. I am not a stupid politician (I am not a
politician at all) to encourage such slavery mentality.
I was happy and thrilled
that I could use the God gift (writing power) to help a poor illiterate unknown
women. The satisfaction one derives by such humble services cannot be measured
in money terms.
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