This retired Brigadier was awarded Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) by the President. The decorated officer lost Rs 25,000 at a bank in the city when he forgot to collect the cash. What is hurting him the most is that the man who found the cash simply pocketed it and went away. The brigadier has sought the bank’s help now to get the money back.
Brig. B.C. Muthana, a resident of National Games Village complex in Koramangala, visited the State Bank of India, St Mark’s Road branch, on Monday to withdraw money. He went to counter number 10 and the cashier, Ms Shweta, gave him Rs 25,000 in Rs 500 and Rs 100 denominations. He placed the cash in front of him on the counter, and handed over the passbook for updating. At the same time, an elderly man, roughly around 60 years of age with a trimmed beard and a limp, approached the cashier for a withdrawal slip.
He asked Brig. Muthana for a pen. As the systems were slow, the cashier told Mr Muthana that it would take sometime to update his passbook. Mr Muthana asked her to return the passbook, took the pen from the man and moved to the home loan section, next to the cash counter. The money was still on the counter, but Mr Muthana forgot to take it. After 10 minutes, he realised that he had not collected the money and went back onl to see it was gone. He asked the cashier about his cash and the man but Ms Shweta was unaware about both.
Mr Muthana immediately reported the incident to the manager, who went through the recordings of CCTV cameras that showed a man, sitting on the chair vacated by Mr Muthana, covering the Rs 25,000 cash with a paper and leaving the branch. Mr Muthana has requested the bank authorities to recover the money from the man on the CCTV. “This man in the CCTV was in the bank just for 10 minutes. We have taken a CCTV grab and are going through the account details to ascertain if he is our customer. If he is, we will summon him and recover the money. The police would also be informed to initiate action against him as it amounts to theft,” sources in the bank said.