After MBA from UK, Chennai man creates fake bank, arrested

CHENNAI: A Chennai man, who pulled off an elaborate con by creating a bogus physical bank, and cheated several persons, including his own employees, to believe that he was running an actual bank, was arrested by Chennai Police recently.

Not only did he open a bank, he also opened branches in nine other places across the State.

The main accused, Chandra Bose (40), of Chennai is a computer science graduate in a city college and was working in a private company. He had also completed an MBA course in UK, police said.

According to a senior police officer with Central Crime Branch (CCB), Chandra Bose was running the bank for about a year in the name of Rural and Agriculture Farmers’ Co-operative Bank (RAFC Bank).

He was aware of all the procedures to start a bank and he forged an approval certificate as if it was issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“We are still investigating if he had help from others. In this case, even those who were working in his banks were the victims as they were also under the assumption that it was an actual bank,” a senior police officer said.

Chandra Bose had collected caution deposits ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from his employees and used it to pay monthly salaries to them. He used agents in MLM (multi-level marketing) to procure customers for his bank. “When they visited the bank premises, the set up is convincing. Further, he also forged prepaid cards issued by a private bank for the unauthorised sector to maintain zero balance and deposited Rs 500 in each of the accounts and issued to the farmers,” the official said.

His plan was to make as much money as possible and then escape with it. Based on information, CCB officials investigated him and found fake bank documents and seals. A luxury car was seized and Rs 56 lakh in his bank accounts have been frozen, police said.

Further investigations are on to find others involved in his network.