CHENNAI: In a daring con job that can give other scammers a run for their money, a 44-year-old man defrauded thousands by opening his own bank—Rural and Agricultural Farmer’s Cooperative Bank—dishing out 3,000 bank accounts across Tamil Nadu.
The Bank Fraud Investigation Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested Chandrabose of Thousand Lights in Chennai on Saturday for running a fake bank at nine places in Tamil Nadu and recovered documents, a luxury car, and Rs 56.6 lakh in cash. Chandrabose was operating the bank from Ambattur in Chennai.
In a press meet held on Tuesday, Chennai City Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal said, “We started an investigation based on an alert from the Reserve Bank of India.” A complaint was also lodged by an AGM of the RBI. The bank had fake RBI certificates. Police have also seized deposit slips, withdrawal slips, and cash counting machines.
A police officer from the Bank Fraud Investigation Wing said, “The so called bank had everything that one can find in a regular bank. It gave out loans and collected deposits.”
When a customer wanted to open an account, he had to pay Rs 700 as membership fee.The bank would then issue a credit/debit card to the customer with Rs 500 as balance. The card numbers would be given as account numbers, said an officer explaining the fake bank’s modus operandi.
‘Societies’ were formed to obtain ICICI Bank cards: Commissioner
Talking about the cards, the commissioner said, “The bank had formed ‘societies’ through which they obtained credit/debit cards from ICICI Bank. The RAFC bank would then put its sticker on the cards and give them to its customers.”
According to a press release from the city police, a search was conducted at nine places across Tamil Nadu including Madurai, Virudhachalam, Kallakurichi, Namakkal, Perambalur, Erode, Tiruvannamalai and Salem.
The fake bank had also allegedly promised fixed and recurring deposit services and offered loans — all at rates higher than what was fixed by the RBI. According to police sources, one person has been arrested and all those involved will be arrested soon. “We have recovered Rs 56.6 lakh based on preliminary investigation. We expect to recover more money from the bank soon,” sources said.