‘Systemic failures’ made tribal man take his sister’s skeletal remains to bank, finds probe in Odisha

A preliminary investigation by the Odisha government has shown that systemic failures were behind the desperate and disturbing act of a tribal man who moved his sister’s skeletal remains to a bank to prove her death.

Jitu Munda from Diananali village in Patna block in Keonjhar district, who was asked by the bank to provide proof of his sister’s death in order to withdraw money from his account, exhumed his sister’s body on Monday, April 27, 2026, and carried the skeletal remains on his shoulder to the bank. Mr. Munda wanted to withdraw ₹19,300 from the account of Kalara Munda, who died two months ago.