Maha farmer gets Rs 15 lakh in Jan Dhan account, builds house; 6 months later, bank cries ‘mistake’

 In August 2021, farmer Gyaneshwar Ote was delighted to find that Rs 15 lakh had - out of the blue - been deposited in his Jan Dhan bank account. He felt that PM Modi was delivering on his poll promises and even wrote a ‘thank you’ letter to the prime minister.

Gyaneshwar Ote, a native of Paithan taluka in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, withdrew Rs 9 lakh of his windfall gain from his Bank of Baroda account to build a house.

But six months later, his dreams came crashing down when his bank sent him a notice saying the huge amount of money had been deposited in his account by mistake. Further, the bank asked him to return the amount in full.

It turns out that the money was actually allocated to Pimpalwadi gram panchayat for development purposes. After four months, the gram panchayat realised that the money meant for its use had been deposited in the account of Gyaneshwar Ote.

Speaking on the development, Gyaneshwar Ote said he had spent the money only because he thought that it had been sent to his account by PM Modi. While the balance Rs 6 lakh has been paid back to the bank, he is yet to repay the Rs 9 lakh that he spent on building his house.