A tribal man brought his dead sister’s skeleton and staged a protest in front of a rural bank believing her presence was required to withdraw money from her account, police said.The incident took place in Mallipasi village on Monday afternoon.
Jeetu Munda, 42, from Dianali village in Keonjhar district, reached the Odisha Grameen Bank branch at Mallipashi around 3pm with the mummified remains of his sister slung over his shoulder. Jeetu’s sister had returned to her parental place after losing her husband and her only son. She had opened a savings account at the branch and regularly deposited money into it before her death about two months ago. Her family had performed her last rites and buried her near their home in Dianali village.
After her death, Jeetu visited the bank with her passbook seeking to withdraw money from the account but reportedly did not inform bank officials that his sister had died. He made multiple visits but was unable to access the funds.
During one such visit, a bank official told him he would be able to withdraw the money only if the account holder was present.
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“We had asked him to get the documents to prove that he was the legal heir of his sister,” said a bank official.
Believing he needed to physically produce his sister to complete the withdrawal, Jeetu returned to his village, exhumed her body, placed the remains in a plastic sack and carried it to the bank.
Bank staff noticed the body placed on the branch verandah and alerted local police. A team led by the inspector-in-charge of Patna police station, Kiran Prasad Sahu, arrived at the scene and cajoled the man.
Police and bank officials persuaded Jeetu to take the remains back to his village, assuring him that the required documentation will be arranged to enable withdrawal of the money from his sister’s account, Sahu said.
Following the assurances, Jeetu returned to Dianali village and reburied his sister’s remains at the same location, the police officer added.
