For nearly two years, unsuspecting customers of Bank of India were quietly losing their savings. Investigators say Hitesh Kumar Singla, a suspended staff officer, allegedly orchestrated a scheme that drained ₹16 crore from 127 accounts—including fixed deposits, PPFs, senior citizen savings, and other schemes. Without authorization, he closed accounts and redirected funds into his personal State Bank of India account.
By the time the scam unraveled, Singla had vanished, forcing families to confront vanished life savings that, in some cases, represented decades of work.
The ED Crackdown
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), acting on a CBI and Mumbai Anti-Corruption Branch FIR, intensified surveillance after Singla went underground. According to officials, he changed train seats and coaches repeatedly in an effort to evade arrest. But on September 17, he was finally apprehended at Ahmedabad Junction railway station under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
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Presented before a special PMLA court in Greater Bombay, Singla was remanded to ED custody until September 23. Authorities described the chase as a turning point in a case that exposed systemic loopholes in banking oversight.
The Human Cost
For affected customers, the case has raised urgent questions about trust in public-sector banks. Many had invested in secure instruments—senior citizen deposits, savings accounts, and small schemes—believing they were immune from fraud. Instead, their funds were siphoned to bankroll a single officer’s escape plan.
Experts warn that without tighter internal checks and greater accountability, such cases risk eroding public confidence in India’s banking system. “These scams show that financial literacy and institutional safeguards must work hand in hand,” a former regulator said.
The ED’s investigation is now focused on whether others aided Singla, and whether systemic failures enabled the siphoning of crores without triggering alarms for over two years.
