Indian teacher Parijat Saha finds $9.8 billion in his bank account

Parijat Saha, an Indian school teacher, got quite a surprise when he checked his bank statement on Sunday: he was a billionaire. 

Saha, who expected to find about 10,000 rupees ($200) in his account, was shocked to find a $9.8 billion balance instead. 

"I called up a friend in the bank and joked, maybe money is overflowing in your bank, that's why your system has remitted so much money into my account," Saha told BBC News. 

The government-run State Bank of India (SBI), whose motto is "Safe Banking with SBI," has not explained what happened. Sources told the BBC that the funds were "uncleared" and that Saha could not have withdrawn the money even if he had tried. However, the amound still remains on his balance, according to the BBC. 

SBI is the largest banking and financial services institution in India, according to the International Business Times. 

More from GlobalPost: State Bank of India to get $1.6 billion bailout after Moody's downgrade

The bank's regional headquarters in Calcutta and national headquarters in Mumbai have been alerted of the mistake, and officials are still scrambling to figure out what went wrong, sources in the bank told the BBC. 

"I have been specifically asked not to comment on this issue," Subhashish Karmakar, chief manager of the bank's branch in Balurghat, told the BBC.

Saha's monthly salary as a teacher is about 35,000 rupees ($700), according to the BBC. However, the account balance of $9.8 billion is closer to India's entire annual education budget, which is $11.5 billion.

More from GlobalPost: India education: The chain school