In a shocking piece of news, the Chennai city police have arrested 42-year-old Chandrabose on the startling accusation of running a fake bank for over a year. During this term, he installed nine branches across the state and showcased the bank as if it was registered and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The development has displayed the prevalence of growing financial menaces, in line with the fake loan apps, and alarmed the general public before pursuing such institutions. 

According to reports, Chandrabose is a resident of Thousand Lights in Chennai and he is an MBA graduate, having been studied in the United Kingdom. He established a bank under the name of 'Rural Agricultural Farmers' Co-Operative (RAFC) Bank. He operated the bank from Ambattur and eight other places across Tamil Nadu.

Chandrabose's bank operations were similar to those of prominent banks which could have imparted a belief to the general public to open accounts and invest money in RAFC bank. After arresting him for running a fake bank, Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal said that Chandrabose has fabricated the bank certificate and claimed it was conferred by the RBI and he opened nine branches across the state. 

Besides functioning in Ambattur, Chennai, RAFC was operating its branches in Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Erode, Namakkal, Kallakurichi, Vriddhachalam, Perambalur, and Thirumangalam in Madurai. Under the name of the Cooperative bank, the bank would collect Rs 700 as a membership fee and it would issue a credit/debit card to the customers with a balance of Rs 500. The bank would say to the customers that the card number is their bank account number. 

To showcase the culture of a normal bank, the RAFC bank issued passbooks, it had its own withdrawal slips, deposit slips, rubber stamps, and KYC forms. The bank even had the option of fixed deposits. On the front of how the scam came to light, Commissioner Shankar Jiwal on Tuesday said that the police didn't receive any complaints from the customers but the bank was searched based on the complaint given by RBI.

He said, "The accused acquired the credit cards from the ICICI bank in the name of 'RAFC Society' for his bank customers. Later, he stamped the RAFC bank stickers on the cards and issued them to the customers." "Further investigation and auditing will ascertain how much money is being transacted from this bank. We found one ICICI bank account that the accused used to get all the credit cards for customers. Further course of the investigation will reveal how many banks he used to run his bank", Jiwal added. 

The preliminary probe revealed that these nine branches could have transacted around Rs 2 crores and the operations of collecting money from the customers, deposits, and loans were carried out for a year. Earlier, the Central Crime Branch police in Chennai received a complaint from the Assistant General Manager of the RBI, and based on the complaint, the officials conducted a search in RAFC bank's head office in Ambattur. The officials seized the documents and a luxury car owned by Chandrabose. He was arrested on November 5 and was remanded under judicial custody till November 18.