An Indian high school teacher, with a monthly salary of around $700, was astounded when a routine online check of his bank account showed a balance of almost $10 billion.
Parijat Saha, from the town of Balurghat in West Bengal state, said he had checked his State Bank of India account online last Sunday to confirm reception of a 10,000 rupee ($200) interest payment.
« Instead I saw this astronomical amount, » he told AFP by telephone.
The account showed a balance of 496 billion rupees.
After recovering from the initial shock at becoming an overnight billionaire — at least on paper — Saha, 42, said he immediately called a friend he knew at the bank to point out what was obviously a major accounting error.
The State Bank of India said it was not immediately clear how the amount came to be registered in Saha’s account.
« We are trying to ascertain what went wrong, » said local branch manager Subhashish Karmakar.
« We have informed our regional headquarters in Kolkata and national headquarters in Mumbai, » he said.
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