Furniture and machinery worth Rs 16 lakh were destroyed at the Canara Bank branch in Hediggonda village in Byadagi taluk in the wee hours of Sunday after a man set them on fire.

Rattihalli resident Waseem Akram Mulla (33) was upset after the manager denied him loans. He carried gasoline and cycled to the bank around 2 a.m. He smashed the windows of the branch office on the first floor of the Gram Panchayat building and went inside. He poured gasoline on the materials and started the fire, sources said.

Furniture, cash register equipment, a computer, a printer, a CCTV camera, a scanner, a ventilator, some documents and a banknote counting machine were destroyed in the incident.

A few alert residents grabbed him as he jumped to the ground and tried to escape. They beat him up and handed him over to the police.

Alerted, firefighters rushed in and extinguished the fire. Kaginele police have recorded a case.