The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia city arrested a man on Wednesday for running a fake branch of the Karnataka Bank. Officers recovered Rs 1.37 lakh in cash, which Aafaq Ahmed had collected by opening savings and fixed deposits accounts for local residents.

Ballia Circle Officer Hitendra Krishna said BBH Upadhyaya, an additional general manager of the Karnataka Bank, reached the city on Wednesday afternoon from Varanasi and informed the police about the fake branch in Ballia’s Mulayam Nagar, The Economic Times reported on Friday. Krishna, accompanied by bank officials and a large police force, then raided the establishment.

They found Ahmed sitting inside his chamber, while five other employees worked on different computers. Upadhyaya asked for Ahmed’s appointment letter, Reserve Bank of India licence and authorisation documents. The police arrested Ahmed when he failed to produce the documents.

The police found that Ahmed had opened the branch a month ago and had not paid rent to the owner of the property. He went by the name of Vinod Kamble from Mumbai West, which was also mentioned on a fake Aadhaar card the police recovered from him, according to the report.

The police let off the other staff at the fake bank after determining that they had no knowledge of the fraud and were employed for Rs 5,000 each.