The three-month-old branch came under the lens after an SBI customer noticed it in the city of Panruti and took the matter up with his branch manager.

Soon after, the matter was reported to the Zonal office, which informed the branch manager that just two branches of SBI were in operation Panruti, and no third branch had been opened.

SBI officials visited the fake 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.

Police said that SBI officials immediately launched a complaint after the arrest of the three fraudsters. Police also confirmed that no transactions had taken place and no money was lost, Business Standard reports. 

Tamil Nadu police have revealed that one of the three people arrested was Kamal Babu, whose parents were former employees at the bank.

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.