Baripada: In a rare example of honesty, a lady home guard returned Rs 10,000 she had found unclaimed in an ATM machine to its rightful owner in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj.
According to sources, the home guard, Sangita Marandi had gone to an ATM kiosk to withdraw some cash from her account. Before she inserted her bank card into the cash dispensing machine, she found some cash sticking out from it.
As nobody was present in the kiosk to claim the money, she took it out. On counting the cash, it amounted to Rs 10,000. She immediately took the money and informed district SP B Gangadhar about the incident.
“Since there was nobody inside the kiosk, I knew that somebody might have forgotten to take the money or left it there by mistake. As the money did not belong to me, I handed it over to senior officials,” said the home guard.
Following investigation, police came to know that the money belonged to a doctor. On being informed, the doctor came to the police station and introduced himself as Dr Nimai Charan Hembrum.
Dr Hembrum told the police that he had gone to the same ATM kiosk and tried two times to withdraw the cash. But the money did not come out of the machine even after second attempt and he came away. The machine may have dispensed it later due to some technical glitch, he claimed.
After verification of the doctor’s identity and claim, the police returned the money to him. The district police has announced a cash reward of Rs 2,000 for the home guard.
“I thank the police, particularly the lady home guard, for her honesty. For their efforts, I could get back my money,” said Dr Hembrum.
