Vikash Sharma

Nuapada: Several customers in Nuapada district are now left in lurch after being duped of their hard earned money at a Grahak Seva Kendra (Customer Service Point) of a nationalized bank.

Nearly 300 customers have been duped to the tune of over Rs 1 crore, sources said.

Though kiosk banking facilities were introduced to offer services at their doorsteps, the customers at Kurumpuri now feel cheated alleging that all their hard-earned money is gone.

The official in charge of the customer service center of the bank, Dasarathi Sunani is reportedly absconding.

The customers alleged that Sunani always used to drive them away citing internet connection failure and was also not updating the passbooks.

“I had deposited money and the official also kept my passbook,” said Dasami Gaud, a depositor.

As per reports, the State Bank of India (SBI) had set up the customer service centre at Kurumpuri in 2016 to help people, who cannot visit the main branch at Nuapada, deposit and withdraw cash and access other banking facilities without difficulties.

Sources said the official in charge of the kiosk has reportedly embezzled all the money. As the kiosk was closed for one week, the customers sensing something wrong visited the main branch and found that the no transactions were recorded in their bank accounts.

The customers staged a demonstration and even gheraoed the manager and other officials of the main branch today. They are now demanding immediate refund of all their money which they had deposited through the customer service centre.

“We have informed the higher-ups as I have no information about the allegations,” said SK Sai, Manager of SBI's Nuapada main branch.

Based on the complaint filed by the customers, police have started a probe into the incident.

“We are investigating the matter and things will get clear only after a thorough probe,” said Nuapada SDPO, Prasanna Patnaik.

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