The son of an elderly couple who was brutally murdered in their Ghatlodia home last year is having enormous difficulty withdrawing money invested in a savings scheme at a post office in Gandhinagar due to red tape.
He has been persuading the postal department for four months to enable his father’s Rs 14 lakh investment in the scheme to be withdrawn, but the local postal department is allegedly hesitant to disburse the amount. The matter will be forwarded to the finance ministry via the Director General of Posts in New Delhi.
Kiran Shanbhag’s parents, Dayanand Shanbhag, 90, and Vijayalaxmi Shanbhag, 80, were found murdered with their throats slit on November 2, last year, according to case details.
Investigations revealed that the murder was committed for the couple’s money by construction workers working at a nearby site.
Kiran’s father opened an account in a small savings scheme at the Gandhinagar post office in 1988 and used to deposit money into it on a yearly basis. The current balance in the account is Rs 14.04 lakh. Shanbhag’s mother was the account’s nominee.
When Kiran approached post office officials, he was refused permission to withdraw the money, despite the fact that he was the couple’s only legal heir and the couple’s only son. He was asked to bring a Civil Court succession certificate. This will cost Rs 1.25 lakh in total, including court fees and legal fees.
The dispute concerns the interpretation of guidelines mentioned in Paragraph 2 (iv) of Rule 60 of the POSB-CBS (Post Office Saving Bank-CBS) Manual, where the department requires a succession certificate. Shanbhag claims that he is entitled to the money because he is the sole legal heir of the nominee, his late mother.
“On the death of the last surviving nominee or the sole nominee, the claim in respect of the account will be settled in favour of the legal heir of the last deceased nominee and not in favour of the legal heir of the deceased depositor,” the rule states.
“The successive line of the said rule clearly says that the claim will not be settled in favour of the legal heir of the deceased depositor. It means I can’t get the amount to be the legal heir of my father. The rule doesn’t mention about bringing a succession certificate. Even if I get the certificate and the department clears my claim, it will still be a violation of its own rules,” said Shanbhag .
The case has become peculiar as the nominee also died. “We are conversant with the facts of the case and we are ready to settle the claim if the claimant brings a succession certificate. But he has his own interpretation, and we have to act as per the rules. Being a nodal agency of the finance ministry for the small saving schemes, we are bound by rules framed by the ministry,” said a top official of the postal department. The official said, “As we are acting as the agency, we have sent the issue to the Director General of Post for advice or instruction about the peculiar issue.”