Rs 2,000 currency note loses colour, throws UP police into tizzy

Shahjahanpur: The Uttar Pradesh police was on Saturday thrown into a tizzy after a man claimed a new currency note of Rs 2,000 denomination, he withdrew form a State Bank of India (SBI) ATM, started to lose its pink colour.

"Jalalabad resident Ritik Gupta went to the ATM to withdraw Rs 10,000. He withdrew five currency notes of Rs 2,000 each, of which one was possibly scanned and sent to the ATM," Kotwali Police Station in-charge Bharat Gautam said.

A complaint in this regard has been registered at the police station, he said.

However, Shahjahanpur SP K B Singh said the complaint pertained to a Rs 2,000 note losing its colour.

"There were no complaint of any fake currency notes being retrieved from an ATM in Jalalabad," he told PTI.

Regional manager of SBI, R B Trivedi, said it would be wrong to say that a fake currency note came out of the ATM.

Whatever currency notes are coming to the bank, they are coming from the Reserve Bank of India. The currency notes kept in the ATM are also sent by the RBI, he said, adding "Nevertheless, we are getting the entire case investigated."

The incident comes days after an SBI ATM in Delhi dispensed four notes of Rs 2,000 with "Children Bank Of India" written on them. On the fake notes, in place of the official mark, a little box said "Churan Label".

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. The notes bore the words, "I give 2,000 coupons to the holder."

However, the SBI, in a statement, has said the chances of getting fake notes from its ATM are very remote.

"SBI has in place, at all its Currency Chests, a very robust system for monitoring the quality of notes. All notes received by the bank and to be dispensed by it, either through its ATMs or its branches, are processed through the state-of-the-art 'note sorting machines... Thus, no fake note is likely to be dispensed through the bank's ATMs at any time," the statement said.