Families in North Bengal panic after crores appear in accounts
Times of India | 12 July 2026
Jalpaiguri: Three families in North Bengal were shocked on Saturday to discover crores of rupees appearing overnight in their bank accounts. Together, the three accounts reflected nearly Rs 2,200 crore.
In two instances, the anomalies came to light when women went to withdraw funds received under the state’s welfare schemes.
At Bidhannagar in Siliguri’s Phansidewa block, Meherunnesa was stunned to find Rs 740.7 crore in her account when she went to withdraw her Annapurna Yojana allowance.
In Maynaguri, Shefali Roy, a homemaker from Saptibari II gram panchayat, found Rs 700 crore in her account. Alarmed by the discovery, her family approached the local police.
In the third case, Suparna Roy, a Class VII student at Haldibari High School in South Bara Haldibari, Cooch Behar, found Rs 759.7 crore in her account. She and her mother had gone to a customer service point to withdraw Rs 900 received under the Sikshashree scheme for SC and ST students.
While the reason behind the sudden windfall remains unclear, experts suggest it could be a banking glitch that will be rectified when branches reopen on Monday. Another possibility being investigated is that cybercriminals might have used these accounts as temporary conduits to park laundered money.
A former banking official noted that the issue could stem from a software error at a customer service point, where a 10-digit mobile number might have been erroneously mapped onto the account balance field.