The ATMs might be tottering in dispensing cash to people in various parts of the country, but an SBI ATM in the national capital has dispensed a customer fake Rs.2000 notes churned out by "Children Bank of India".
These fake high-denomination notes have literally sought to mock at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-produced genuine bank notes.
The SBI ATM, located at Sangam Vihar in South Delhi, dispensed four Rs.2000 notes to a customer care executive Rohit Kumar when he had gone there to withdraw cash on 6 February. He was stunned as he found a string of startling features on the currency dispensed by the ATM.
The fake Rs.2000 notes he got read "Children Bank of India" instead of Reserve Bank of India, even as its Hindi version on the top left corner stated "Bharatiya Manoranjan Bank" in place of Bharatiya Reserve Bank.
The notes had "PK" logo on them in place of the RBI stamp while the governor's name and signature as well as the Rupee symbol were missing from them. Each of them promised to "pay the barer two thousand coupens (sic)". It also mentioned "Guaranteed by the Children Government" instead of "Guaranteed by the Central Government" and "Churan Lable (sic)" in place of the Ashok emblem, with its serial number stating simply "000000".
After Rohit informed the local police, the latter sent a sub-inspector to the ATM which also dispensed a similar fake Rs 2000 note to him, although there were no other such cases reported by its customers.
The Sangam Vihar police station has registered a criminal case of cheating and counterfeit currency under various sections of Indian Penal Code. Police have identified the last man who had filled cash in the ATM which has apparently been sealed.
Police called all the five fake Rs.2000 notes "children playing notes, which are available at toy shops". They said the bank has "fixed" the liability of Mohammed Isha, custodian of Brinks India Pvt Ltd, who works for the SBI ATM as he was the "custodian" at the time of the incident. Although Isha has denied his involvement in it, the police is probing his role.
In a statement, SBI said they have a "robust system" in place for monitoring the quality of notes and that the investigation in the matter is continuing.
The episode provided ammunition to the Opposition parties which have been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his controversial demonetisation move for more than three months.
Firing salvos at PM Modi, the Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi stating that "A Prime Minister who cannot even produce proper notes, can he run the country? He has made the entire country a joke."
Training his guns at PM Modi, the CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury described this incident as "rubbing salt on poor people's wounds" and "mockery of the country".
The episode did not amuse a number of Delhi citizens who questioned the demonetisation move if its one key objective ~ curbing counterfeit currency ~ did not seem to have been properly fulfilled.
Sarla Singh, a homemaker, said, "So much chaos was created for demonetisation in the name of curbing terrorism and counterfeit currency. But nothing happened. Every other day there is a news of someone getting caught with fake currency. It seems nothing can check circulation of fake currency, and demonetisation also could not ensure it."
An undergradaute student Geet Jaggi gave an account of his "protracted hardship" during the demonetisation drive. "I had to queue up in long lines before ATMs for hours to get some cash. The irony is that the ATM now seems to be dispensing fake cash pretty easily," he said.