PSU bank circulating counterfeit notes in Shimla

Shimla, May 29 (UNI) Will you believe that a public sector bank here in Himachal Pradesh is circulating counterfeit notes? Hard to believe? But the branch of the Allahabad Bank here did just that with a journalist of a Hindi daily, Gyan Thakur, who realised it only after another bank refused to accept the notes, saying these were fake.

Mr Thakur after withdrawing 10 notes of Rs 1,000 denomination each from the Bank early today reached Punjab National Bank (PNB) only to be told that the notes were fake.

On rushing back to the Allahabad Bank, he was told by the officials that they had not given him the notes, which they later on changed, saying the mistake was inadvertent and that the matter should not be considered close.

On being asked why they were handing out counterfeit notes to the customers, they said these notes were in circulation everywhere and were difficult to identify.

Besides, they did not forget to teach the journalist and a few of his colleagues, accompanying him, that a fake note should be checked at the counter itself.

However, what they failed to answer was how a customer could identify a fake note when the bank itself was finding it difficult to identify them.

UNI