Technical glitch gets Chennai man Rs 750 crores in bank account

According to the police, Idris, 30, a resident of Teynampet, who works in a pharmacy nearby and hails from the Tirunelveli district, received a text message stating that Rs 753 crore had been placed in his Kotak Mahindra bank account.

A pharmacy employee in Chennai on October 7 found out that his bank account was credited with a mind-boggling amount of Rs 753 crore after he transferred Rs 2000 to his friend. 

Mohammad Idris was elated to find such a huge amount in his account, as he had a balance of Rs 3000 till then. But his excitement was short lived as his account at the Kotak Mahindra Bank branch in Teynampet was frozen by staff members who claimed the mistaken deposit was the result of a technical glitch.

This is the third such instance to occur in Tamil Nadu in the past month. Earlier, Rs 9000 crore was credited into the account of a cab driver in the same city, and another account in Thanjavur received Rs 750 crore. Both the above incidents happened within the span of a month.

According to the police, Idris, 30, a resident of Teynampet who works in a pharmacy nearby and hails from the Tirunelveli district, received a text message stating that Rs 753,48,35,179.48 crore had been credited in his Kotak Mahindra bank account.

He immediately contacted the bank, but the staff members were unresponsive.

When Idris spoke with reporters in the afternoon, he complained that the bank branch employees had not provided a satisfactory explanation and that he intended to file a lawsuit, reported TOI.

An SMS message bug was to blame for the error, said a Kotak Mahindra Bank official.

"The account does not actually display the wrong account balance; just the message does. We wish to confirm that the customer's account was not blocked," he said, adding that a team was working on rectifying the error. The bank regrets the inconvenience caused, he said.