It isn’t a Fool’s Day prank, but has happened for real. An SBI ATM in South Delhi’s Sangam Vihar dispensed fake Rs.2000 notes, which are guaranteed by a non-existent ‘Bhartiya Manoranjan Bank’ (translates to Entertainment Bank of India), instead of the Reserve Bank of India.
The Fake
Surprisingly, the fake note looks dangerously identical to the original, and if one isn’t paying enough attention at the text, it could pass off as a genuine currency note. The fake, pink piece of paper even makes a mockery of the guarantee that the genuine note carries, and instead of the text which reads, ‘Guaranteed By The Central Government’, the text on the duplicate reads, ‘Guaranteed By The Children Government’. The part where the RBI Governor promises to pay the bearer a sum of two thousand rupees, the text on the fake note promises to pay the bearer ‘Two Thousand Coupens’ instead. Urjit Patel’s signature and the RBI’s seal have been replaced with a ‘P.K.’ logo, which perhaps takes inspiration from a Bollywood flick.
The Original
The person who noticed the difference has been identified as Rohit, who works as a customer care executive at a call centre located in South Delhi. He had visited the SBI ATM at around 7.45pm on February 6 to withdraw Rs 8,000, but all the four notes he withdrew were fake. Rohit immediately brought the incident to the police’s notice, post which a sub-inspector was sent to the ATM. Confirming the development, a senior police officer said, “We sent a sub-inspector to verify the allegations. He withdrew one Rs 2,000 note and that also turned out to be fake.”
While SBI has come out saying that they will send a team to investigate the incident, it puts a question on the security features of the new currency notes, which replaced the older ones for being nearly inimitable. For our readers, you have been warned and the next time you withdraw cash from an ATM, do check if the note in your hand has a ‘Churan’ label.
Source and Image: HT
