Tamil Nadu police today arrested three people in Panruti for participating in an unusual crime. The three people were running a duplicate State Bank of India (SBI) branch for three months. Among the arrested, one was the son of former bank employees.

According to Business Standard, Police Inspector Ambhethkar has confirmed the news and stated that they had arrested the three men. The mastermind of the criminal activity was Kamal Babu. Both of Babu's parents were former bank employees. His father died 10 years ago, while his mother retired from a bank two years ago.

The other two individuals involved in the crime included a person who runs a printing press in Panruti. It is from this printing press that the trio used to print all the receipts, challans and other documents required for running a bank. The third individual was into printing rubber stamps.

The fake branch came under suspicion after an SBI customer noticed the branch in Panurti and complained to the branch manager of a real SBI branch. After learning of the new branch, SBI Zonal office then informed the bank manager that there were only two SBI branches in Panruti and this new third branch was not anywhere on their papers, reports the daily.

Soon after, SBI officials visited the place to discover the authentic-looking facade that the three individuals had concocted. The systems and infrastructure were the exact same compared to a regular SBI branch. The officials then filed an official complaint with the police following which the three individuals were arrested. According to the police no transactions had taken place so the bank had not lost any money.