Kameshwar Prasad (left) at the State Bank of India branch in Gaya. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

The biggest public sector bank in the country has done the unthinkable. It has declared a retired septuagenarian employee of Pilgrim Hospital in Gaya dead in its books and stopped his pension.

Kameshwar Prasad, 74, a resident of Ganga Bigha locality in Gaya town, was shocked when officials of the Anugrahpuri Colony branch of the State Bank of India told him that his account had been closed and his pension had been stopped since he was dead.

“I was surprised to learn that I had been declared dead in spite of submitting an official declaration to the bank in the month of October last year stating that I was alive. Moreover, I drew my pension from the same account till January, 2013,” he added. Prasad came to know about the bank’s incongruity when he visited the branch four days ago to withdraw his pension for the month of February.

Prasad’s case resembled the case of a “dead” man walking into the Vishrampur branch of SBI in Jharkhand’s Palamu district in 2011 to withdraw money from his account.

An Indira Awas beneficiary, Bhola Ram from Godarma Khurd village under Rehla police station in Palamu, passed away on May 18, 2011. Ram was allotted an Indira Awas in 2010-2011. A death certificate was also issued by the panchayat on August 19, 2011. But on May 24, 2011, that is six days after the death certificate was issued, a self-withdrawal form (signed by Ram) for Rs 17,500, was presented to the bank and the amount was withdrawn from Ram’s account.

Despite Prasad’s repeated pleas that he was alive, the bank officials were adamant that he was dead.

The official concerned had written on his savings bank passbook “the deceased estate set stop”.

Prasad met the bank’s branch manager, Rupa Ishwar, and submitted a petition last Wednesday, requesting the latter to restart his pension. “My entire family depends on my pension,” he told the manager.

The manager had earlier asked Prasad to submit a fresh certificate declaring himself alive.

“What else can be a better proof than visiting the branch myself. My photograph is pasted on the passbook,” a visibly upset Prasad told The Telegraph over the telephone from Gaya.

The additional general manager of SBI, Gaya, Vinod Kumar said such a glaring error was not expected from any bank official. “I will certainly look into the matter if it is true,” he said, adding that the error would be rectified at the earliest.

The branch manager, however, described it to be a result of “human error”. Ishwar said the petition had been accepted and forwarded to the authorities concerned.

Prasad’s son, Ishwari Yadav, said his father had retired from the post of a ward attendant at Pilgrim Hospital (now known as Jaiprakash Hospital) in 1996. Yadav said his elder brother, Vinod Kumar Gautam, had died on January 5 this year and his father had submitted a petition to the bank requesting closure of Gautam’s bank account.

“Instead of closing Gautam’s savings bank account, the official concerned closed my father’s pension account,” he said.

Ishwari said the bank has promised to rectify the things right in a week’s time. “The bank’s fault has caused immense trouble for the family, which has lost a member last month,” Yadav told The Telegraph.