Manmohan Singh, a small scale farmer from Pilibhit in UP, has filed a defamation case against the Mumbai regional office of Bank of Baroda as well as its local branch for recently freezing two of his bank accounts. He has sought Rs 10 lakh in compensation within 30 days after his account was frozen by the bank over a mistaken identity. His two savings accounts were frozen in December after the bank mistook him as the guarantor of liquor baron Vijay Mallya's Rs. Rs 550 crore loan with the bank.

Singh however said he has only heard about Mallya and was clueless about how he was dragged into the whole thing.

"We have asked the bank to explain how they managed to establish my client as Mallya's guarantor. We also asked them to disclose the findings that finally led them to relieve Singh of the charges," Singh's lawyer Ram Pal Gangwar said.

With his accounts which had Rs 4,000 and Rs 1,217 each frozen, Singh could not avail any government-sponsored scheme and was forced to sell his agricultural produce to private traders at a lower price, because the government purchase was linked directly to the bank.