Son of ex-bank staffers among three held for running fake SBI branch

The three-month-old branch came under the lens after an SBI customer noticed it in Panruti and informed his branch manager

Tamil Nadu police today arrested three people for running a duplicate branch of State Bank of India (SBI). Among the three people, one was the son of former bank employees.

Ambethkar, an Inspector of Police at Panruti, has confirmed the development and said the police have arrested three people including the mastermind Kamal Babu, an unemployed youth whose parents were former bank employees. 

His father died 10 years ago, while his mother retired from a bank two years ago.

The other two people arrested include a person who runs the printing press from where all the receipts, challans and other documents were printed. The other was into printing rubber stamps. 

The three-month-old branch came under the lens after an SBI customer noticed it in Panruti and took the matter up with his Branch manager. Soon after, the matter was escalated to Zonal office, which in turn informed the Branch Manager that only only two branches of SBI are running in Panruti, and no third branch had been opened.

SBI officials visited the place (the duplicate branch) and were surprised when they saw the entire set, which was exactly like a bank branch, with all the systems and infrastructure in place. SBI officials immediately launched a complaint following the three people were arrested, said police officials. They added that thankfully no transactions had taken place, so no one lost money. All three were presented in court.