Tamil Nadu, Jul 12: An alleged attempt by a 19-year-old man to "open a branch of the State Bank of India" at Panruti near Tamil Nadu was scuttled and he was arrested for forgery, police said on Saturday.

The man, son of retired SBI employees, had readied fake seals and challans of the public sector lender, and had other paraphernalia like a cash counting machine needed "to run a bank branch," on an upper floor of his residence at Panruti, about 25 km from Tamil Nadu.

He had not, however, put up any signboard. The SBI Panruti branch manager lodged a complaint with police seeking action following a tip-off by a customer that the man was "opening an SBI branch and has challans as well."

A printer who printed the challans and another who had made fake seals were held for similar offences and abetment.

They were produced before a magistrate court and enlarged on bail.

Asked if the man had cheated people by soliciting deposits or facilitating loans, Panruti police inspector K Ambethkar said, "no..we have not received any such complaint so far."

The man's late father had worked for SBI and his mother had retired from the same bank some time back, he said.

To a question, the police inspector said the man's mother, who has mobility issues, and another woman a relative living in the same house had no clue about his "idea."

Investigations revealed that he aspired to work for a bank and since he had closely watched banking operations for long he was "very knowledgeable" about it.

On the suspected motive, he said several of his replies were incomprehensible, childish, and strange notwithstanding his excellent understanding of the banking processes.

"He even calmly told us that he awaited approval from Mumbai to open the (SBI) branch and that he was about to put up a signboard," the inspector said, adding that the man had tried unsuccessfully to get employment on compassionate grounds in the SBI following the death of his father in harness.

Hyderabad, Mar 28: Seven labourers from Karnataka were killed and four injured when the van in which they were travelling was hit by a truck near Pedda Golconda on the outskirts of the city late on Friday night, police said.

The deceased included two children. Of the 31 workers in the van, five died on the spot and two while undergoing treatment at a hospital, Assistant Commissioner of Traffic Vishwa Prasad said.
Four others were hospitalised and the condition of one of them is critical, he said, adding the other workers in the van escaped with minor injuries.

The workers were on their way back to their home town Raichur in Karnataka as the road project they were working in at Suryapet here was stalled due to the lockdown, Prasad said.

He said initital investigations revealed that the mango laden truck, which was on its way to Gujarat, was overspeeding.