Money disappears from their SBI savings account

BHUBANESWAR: Customers of the State Bank of India’s (SBI) Vani Vihar Branch were in for shock on Saturday after five of them reported that their savings had allegedly been cleaned up from their accounts. Angry account holders made a beeline at the branch after the matter came to light.The victims of the irregularity, all employees of the Utkal University, demanded that the bank refund their savings and take stringent action against the guilty.  It all started with Surendra Behera, an assistant fitter with the PHD Department of the varsity, who found to his horror on Friday that his savings bank account (No 10164278192) had just ` 446 left in it. About a week ago, he had ` 3.61 lakh. Behera, who is due to retire in next four months time, was shocked and fell ill.After the news of the fraud with Behera spread, four other account holders reported similar misappropriation.  Umamani Sahu, a peon with Employment Section, had saved ` 1.44 lakh but when he checked his account on Saturday, all it had was ` 253.Similar was the case of Rabindra Jena, a peon with the Syndicate Department. His savings had vanished. Two more employees - Anugraha Behera and Purna Chandra Hota - also came up with similar tales. Over ` 6 lakh was reported to have been withdrawn from their accounts by someone. Incidentally, all the five victims were Class IV employees of the varsity.Once the matter came to light, bank’s customers queued up to check their accounts. Some of them even ghearoed the branch and demanded action.The Branch Manager Ashok Mishra met the angry customers and informed that the Vigilance Cell has already taken up the matter and appropriate action will be taken if anyone insider is involved in the incident.The bank was also verifying the withdrawal details from the accounts and the CCTV footage to find any clue to the incident. No case has been lodged with the police as yet.