The Panruti police arrested three persons including the son of a former manager of State Bank of India (SBI), for allegedly running a bogus branch of the bank in Panruti near here.
The arrested were identified as S. Kamalbabu, 19, A. Kumar, 42 and M. Manickam, 52 of Panruti.
Panruti Inspector K. Ambedkar said that SBI had two bank branches in Panruti, and officials were alerted to the functioning of a duplicate branch -- with all infrastructure in place -- in North Bazaar, by a customer. Based on the alert, the manager of SBI branch in Panruti informed zonal officials and lodged a complaint with the Panruti police.
On Friday, the team raided the bogus bank and found that the trio had set up a fake website along with bogus documents including cash deposit and withdrawal challans, registers and rubber stamps.
Mr. Ambedkar said that Kamal Babu’s father Syed Khalil, a former manager of SBI had died during service following a heart attack. Babu had tried for a job as his dependent on compassionate grounds, but in vain. He was well versed with the basic functioning of the bank and allegedly set up the bogus branch in collusion with Kumar and Manickam.
Police said that no transactions had taken place at the branch.
A case was booked against the trio under sections 465 (punishment for forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal), 489 (tampering with property with intent to cause injury) and 109 (punishment for abetment) of the Indian Penal Code.
The three were produced before a local court and remanded to custody.