In the Indian state of Odisha, a shocking incident occurred when a local villager Jeetu Munda dug up his sister’s remains and brought them to the bank. He did so after his employees allegedly told him they repeatedly refused to release money from her account without bringing her in person. As , he carried a corpse on his shoulder partially wrapped in plastic, with the skeletons of his legs sticking out of it. You can see the PHOTO.
Jeetu spent weeks trying to access the sum of approx 19,300 rupees (about €180) from the account of his elder sister Kalra, who died back in January. Although he explained to the staff that the nurse was dead, he claims that they did not listen to him. “They repeatedly told me to bring the account holder in person, even though I explained that she had passed away,” explains.
Jeetu comes from a poor tribal community and is illiterate. According to the police, not at all he did not understand banking rules nor the concept of how “death certificate” or “inheritance proceedings”. Since he did not know how else to prove death, in desperation he walked three kilometers from the cemetery to the bank with the body on his shoulder. “Out of frustration, I dug a grave and brought her remains as proof of death,” he later told reporters.
The arrival of a man with a corpse caused a stir among employees and customers a huge shock. The bank described the situation as “very disturbing” and immediately called the police. Patana policemen had to calm the situation down and explain to the confused man that his course of action was not correct, although they understood his helplessness.
Odisha Grameen Bank in an official statement she denied that they asked the man for the presence of a dead person. They claim that they followed the regulations and they only asked for documents. According to their version, he was a man in a state of intoxication and refused to follow standard steps. They described the whole incident as a consequence of the client’s lack of information.
This tragicomic case exposed a deeper problem in India, although registration of deaths is mandatory, in rural and tribal areas documentation gaps persist. Many poor people have no idea how to get official certificates and do without them victims of a bureaucracy they cannot understand.
After the intervention of the authorities, the sister’s remains were reburied under the supervision of the police. Officials to Jeetu they helped arrange the necessary documents and the money was finally released to the legal heirs. The story ends with a sad reminder of how far a person can go when he encounters an insurmountable barrier between the modern system and simple life in the countryside.
