SBI Says Examining Currency Notes At All ATMs After Reports Of Fake Rs 2,000 Note

A man who had gone to withdraw money at an ATM in Sangam Vihar in New Delhi allegedly ended up getting four notes of Rs 2,000 with "Children Bank Of India" written on them, police said on Wednesday.

Rohit Kumar, a customer care executive, had gone to withdraw cash from a State Bank of India (SBI) ATM on February 6. He got four notes of Rs 2,000 which had "churan" label on them in place of the official watermark.

The notes also had "PK" written on them in place of the RBI stamp and the top left corner had "Bharatiya Manoranjan Bank" written instead of Reserve Bank of India.

After the victim approached the police, a sub-inspector was sent to the ATM to withdraw money. He too received a note that had "Children Bank Of India" written on it.

Following this, a case of cheating was registered and investigation has been taken up, said a senior police officer.

After scanning the footage from the ATM, police has managed to identify the last man who had filled cash in the machine.

"Till now, there have been no other complaints. Probably, only a few notes were changed. We have to identify at which point the real notes were exchanged," the officer added.

In an emailed statement later in the day, SBI said the bank's currency chests have a “robust system” for monitoring quality of the notes, and no fake note is likely to be dispensed from any of its ATMs. It suspects mischievous intent behind the incident.

The bank is currently examining notes in all other ATMs handled by “the same custodians of the bank, and replenished by the same cash replenishment agency”.