Uttar Pradesh: Termites damage tuition teacher’s Rs 18 lakh kept in bank locker for daughter’s wedding

In a shocking incident, a woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad discovered that around Rs 18 lakh she kept in a bank’s locker for nearly a year and a half was infested with termites. The woman, identified as Alka Pathak, kept the money along with some jewelry in the locker in October 2022 for her daughter’s wedding.  

The incident came to light when Pathak was called by the bank for the locker’s annual maintenance and KYC (know your customer) verification. When she opened the locker, she was startled to see all the banknotes irreparably damaged by termites. She immediately reported this to the bank’s branch manager.  

Pathak runs a small business and provides tuition classes. She had kept her savings in the locker in the form of cash and jewelery. Unaware of the precautions to be taken for locker storage, she placed the cash with some jewelry to use as funds for her daughter’s wedding, India Today reported.  

The woman admitted that she was unaware of the conditions necessary for preserving cash and valuables in a bank locker. She also disclosed that she kept the money in the bank without knowing that it could not be stored in this manner. Following this, the branch manager reported the incident and initiated an investigation to assess the extent of the damage. 

A similar incident was reported from Rajasthan’s Udaipur in February this year. A woman kept Rs 2.15 lakh in a locker at the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Udaipur. Sunita Mehta, the owner of the money, was appalled when she visited the bank and noticed that the notes were completely ruined. Rs 2 lakh were put in a fabric bag whereas Rs 15,000 were kept outside the bag.  

The bank manager exchanged the damaged Rs 15,000 hand to hand. But when Mehta returned home and opened the bag, she found that the banknotes in the bag were completely infested with termites. Mehta complained to the authorities about the incident and the bank’s management. In this case, the bank’s manager sprayed termite repellant around the locker and requested other locker holders to open their respective lockers.  

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