A man in Dianbai County has spent the past 10 years trying to recover half a million yuan (US$60,481.4) he said he had deposited with a bank.

When Zhou Shikun tried to withdraw money in September 1993, the Yangjiao Township Credit Cooperative refused to pay, saying his deposit passbook was a fake.

Even worse, local prosecutors detained him for four days suspecting that he had conspired with a bank staff member to embezzle public funds.

He was tortured for more than 30 hours during the investigation, Zhou alleged in an interview with CCTV on Tuesday.

Investigators from the Dianbai County Procuratorate tied him to anti-theft steel bars and deprived him of sleep for more than 40 hours, he said. When he cried, the officers stuffed curtain cloth in his mouth, Zhou told the interviewer.

The officials suspected Zhou and He Ruiyuan, the bank staff member, had collaborated to forge the deposit slip to extort 500,000 yuan from the bank.

The investigations began shortly after Zhou sued the bank to get the money back.

Zhou said he handed the money to He, who in return gave him a passbook with an official stamp. Zhou did not go to the bank when the amount was deposited because He was a bank employee responsible for soliciting deposits outside the bank.

But the bank said it had never received the money.

The investigation by the procuratorate found He had persuaded Zhou to deposit the money in the bank so that He's son and another man, Luo Yunzhong, could obtain a loan from the bank for a business transaction. Zhou had earlier refused to lend the money to He's son, the investigators said.

However, He did not take the money to the bank. Instead, he gave it to his son and Luo. The business failed and both He's son and Luo had since disappeared.

In February 2003, Zhou won a lawsuit against the bank. The Dianbai People's Court ruled that the deposit was legal and the bank should repay him 500,000 yuan with interest.

The bank has appealed and the case is being retried.

Zhou has also lodged a complaint accusing officials of the procuratorate of irregularities in handling the case.

(Shenzhen Daily December 11, 2003)