Chennai, Nov 9 (IANS): The Bank Fraud Investigation Wing of the Crime Branch of Tamil Nadu police has launched a manhunt for the accomplices of a 44-year-old conman who opened his own bank and defrauded several people.

Chandrabose was arrested and a luxury car and an amount of Rs 56 lakh in cash were recovered from his possession. However, police said that Chandrabose was not alone in his operation and that many of his accomplices have gone into hiding. The crime branch special investigation team is on a lookout for them.

According to Tamil Nadu police, Chandrabose formed his own Rural, and Agricultural Farmers Cooperative Bank, without any license. He opened nine branches in various parts of the state and collected money from people.

It opened branches in Madurai, Virudachalam, Kallakurichi, Namakkal, Perambalur, Erode, Salem and two branches in Chennai city.

The Chennai city police commenced investigation into the functioning of the RAFC bank after the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) intimated to the police about a bank being operated in Ambattur without any license.

A formal complaint was also lodged by an Assistant General Manager (AGM) of the Reserve Bank of India, based on which, the city crime branch launched an investigation.

Police said that the modus operandi of the bank was to collect Rs 700 as a membership fee and the bank would issue a credit/debit card to the customers with a balance of Rs 500 and the card numbers would be provided as the bank account number of the customers.

According to the investigating team, the bank was operating as a regular bank by collecting deposits as well as providing loans. Higher interest rates were offered to the depositors and loans were provided easily to the customers.