Janjgir-Champa | A fake branch claiming to be of the State Bank of India (SBI) was unearthed in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district following which police booked its three operators, a police official said on Sunday.

The bogus branch was being run in Chhapora village under Malkharauda police station limits, Sakti Additional Superintendent of Police Rama Patel said. Sakti, adjoining Janjgir-Champa district, is around 200 km from the state capital Raipur.

The fraudulent banking unit was set up in a rented shop in a commercial complex on September 18, with posters and banners of SBI installed there, she said.

Suspecting something was phoney, some locals complained about it. A team from SBI’s regional office in Korba inspected the branch and found it to be fake, she said.

After being alerted by the public sector bank on Friday, police raided the place, the official said.

Five employees were found to be working in the fake branch. They claimed to have been hired through interviews, Patel said, adding that the employees are currently being interrogated.

Police have seized computers and other materials from the fake branch.

A case has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against its three operators, including a person who claimed to be the manager and was said to be the mastermind of the fraud, the official said.

Efforts are being made to trace the accused, another police official said.

A probe is underway to ascertain how many people opened accounts with the fake branch and how much money the conmen collected from them, he said.