PNB earning flak for Nirav Modi, but loyal customers too set an example

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is hogging all the attention for its runaway customer Nirav Modi who took a multi-million rupee loan from the bank. However, the bank had some loyal customers in terms of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri whose car loan of Rs 5,000 from the same bank was repaid after his sudden death by widow Lalita from her pension.

Elaborating on the same, Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son Anil Shastri, a senior Congress politician shared that they had applied for a loan of Rs 5,000 to purchase a new Fiat costs Rs 12,000 in 1964 and the loan was sanctioned the same day.

But with Shastri’s passing away on January 11, 1966, in Tashkent, the loan remained unpaid. Anil Shashtri explained that his mother repaid the loan from the pension she received after his father's death.

The car, a cream coloured 1964 model Fiat is now exhibited in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial at 1, Motilal Nehru Marg, in New Delhi.