MP bank says new Rs. 2,000 banknotes without Mahatma Gandhi’s image not fake

Panic struck a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district as a bunch of new Rs. 2,000 banknotes without Mahatma Gandhi’s image was being distributed and locals, not surprisingly, thought these to be counterfeits.

However, locals were later reassured by bank officials that the noted were not fake and a possible printing mistake could have excluded the embossed image of the Father of the Nation.

Some farmers had withdrawn money at a State Bank of India branch in Badodha tehsil on Tuesday and received notes without the image of the Mahatma.



“I withdrew Rs 6,000. The cashier gave me three notes of Rs 2,000. When I reached home, my son told me that Gandhiji’s picture was missing in the banknote. My son told me it was fake,” said Laxman Meena, a farmer from Bichugaanvdi village.

Meena had supposedly gone back to the bank immediately but bank officials were reluctant to take any action.

Hindustan Times had contacted the SBI Badodha branch manager, RD Meena, and was told that these Rs. 2,000 banknotes without Mahatma Gandhi’s image were not fake. He added that, “Somehow the notes have not been printed completely. So, we have taken the notes back.”