4 min readBhubaneswarApr 30, 2026 05:46 PM IST
Days after a tribal man carried his sister’s skeleton to a local bank in Odisha’s Keonjhar district, ostensibly to prove she had died, the state government said its initial probe found “negligence on the part of the bank officials”.
“The CCTV footage of the incident that the district collector and I watched for over an hour suggests negligence on the part of the bank officials. As there is no audio version of the CCTV footage, we are not able to determine the nature of the conversation, but the body language of the bank officials suggests they are at fault,” Sangram Keshari Mohapatra, revenue divisional commissioner (RDC), northern division, said.
The incident came to light on Monday after 59-year-old Jitu Munda from Dianali village went to the Malliposi branch of Odisha Grameen Bank with his sister’s remains, having exhumed them, to withdraw her savings of Rs 19,300, prompting a government probe.
Mohapatra said Jitu Munda took the step after returning “aggrieved” from the bank. “What we came to know is that Jitu Munda was present in the bank from 11.26 am to 11.58 am. During this time, he met the bank manager twice and also reached out to other staff – the cashier and the bank mitra. As he returned aggrieved, he took the step,” he said.
The RDC said bank officials knew both Jitu Munda and his sister, Kalra Munda, as they had visited together multiple times. Their last visit was on December 26, about a month before Kalra’s death, when they withdrew Rs 500.
“By their own admission, the bank officials knew both were siblings. So, they should have had a polite approach. There was clear negligence by the bank officials, which I will mention in my report,” Mohapatra said.
Officials of the Mallipasi branch of Odisha Grameen Bank had claimed on Monday that Munda, who had come to the bank for the first time, could neither produce any death certificate nor any papers to establish that he was the legal heir. Satyabrata Nanda, who looked into the matter on behalf of the bank, had claimed, “The allegations levelled by Jitu Munda are baseless because neither he had visited the bank nor had he made any request before Monday. This was confirmed after examining the CCTV footage. He was drunk when he came with his sister’s skeletal remains.”
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But the RDC said Munda appeared to know banking procedures. “He knows the process to withdraw money, such as whom to approach with the withdrawal slip,” Mohapatra said.
A day after the incident, the bank settled the claim in Kalra’s name after the government expedited the issuance of her death and legal heir certificates. The state government also offered Rs 30,000 to Jitu Munda from the Red Cross fund.
Meanwhile, former Odisha chief minister and Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik hit out at the state government, saying “Odisha’s head hangs in shame” over the issue.
“A woman’s skeleton had to be exhumed by her family and carried to the bank to prove her death in order to claim her rightful dues. Even though numerous visits had been made by her brother after her death to request the officials to complete the bank formalities, officials kept harassing him, asking for proof of her death,” said Patnaik in the state assembly on Thursday, which was convened for a day to discuss participation of women in Indian democracy.
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Patnaik said what is more appalling is that after presenting her skeleton to the bank as proof, he had to again carry her back home on foot, which shows complete apathy and zero accountability of the administration supported by a completely insensitive state government.
