Suspended BOI officer blew 90% of ₹16-cr siphoned money in trading, crypto, gaming: ED

A Bank of India officer siphoned ₹16.10 crore from customer accounts, losing most in risky trades and betting, leaving little for restitution.

MUMBAI: In what investigators are calling a tale of greed and reckless gambling, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has revealed that 32-year-old Hitesh Singla, the suspended Bank of India (BOI) officer accused of siphoning off ₹16.10 crore from 127 customer accounts, squandered nearly 90% of the stolen money in high-risk stock market trades, crypto tokens, and online betting platforms.

Suspended BOI officer blew 90% of ₹16-cr siphoned money in trading, crypto, gaming: ED

By the time the law caught up with Singla—with his arrest on a moving train in Ahmedabad last week—the money trail had all but evaporated. “There is virtually no proceeds of crime (POC) left. The accused lost heavily in speculative futures and options, online gaming-betting and crypto. The remaining was spent on personal expenses,” an ED official said. The revelation leaves little for investigators to seize or victims to hope for by way of restitution.

A spiral of greed and reckless bets

Investigators say Singla lost the maximum chunk—over ₹11.5 crore—in stock market futures and options trades, a segment notorious for luring investors with dreams of high returns but often ending in ruin. The rest went into crypto trading and online gaming-betting platforms.

Even ₹1.5 crore he had initially parked with a female friend in Mumbai, hoping to keep it safe, was eventually pulled back and sunk into online gaming and betting. Last week, ED searched her residence, but by then, the money had already vanished. “He got trapped in a vicious cycle of trying to recover losses with bigger bets, only to sink deeper every time,” said an official.

The agency believes Singla’s gamble followed a classic pattern of addiction—initial wins luring him into riskier positions, followed by mounting losses that drove him to pour in more of the siphoned money in a desperate attempt to recover. The result: a clean wipe-out.

Anatomy of the fraud

According to ED’s findings, the fraudulent siphoning began in May 2023 and continued until July this year. Singla, a staff officer posted at a city-based BOI branch, allegedly manipulated internal systems to close fixed deposits, Public Provident Funds (PPFs), senior citizen savings schemes, and even dormant accounts without requisite authorisation.

He specifically targeted what officials describe as “vulnerable profiles”—accounts belonging to senior citizens, minors, deceased customers, and inactive holders. These accounts, being less frequently monitored, allowed him to operate undetected.

The proceeds from these closed accounts were diverted into Singla’s personal accounts with the State Bank of India. Investigators say the transfers were broken into smaller instalments, camouflaging the magnitude of the fraud and helping it slip under the radar for months.

“Through this modus operandi, Singla defrauded the Bank of India and its customers of ₹16.10 crore, causing substantial loss to the institution, damaging its reputation, and eroding public trust,” an ED official said.

Chase across states

The fraud came to light earlier this year when Singla stopped reporting to work and his absence coincided with irregularities noticed in the branch accounts. Alarmed, BOI approached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On August 6, the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch in Mumbai registered an FIR against Singla and unnamed accomplices under the IPC, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

What followed was a manhunt across states. For weeks, Singla remained on the run, shifting between locations to evade detection. ED investigators eventually tracked him down last week in Gujarat.

The chase itself lasted over 13 hours and involved coordination across multiple points. Acting on intelligence, one ED team flew from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, while another boarded the Mahamana Express at Godhra, where Singla was believed to be travelling.

But Singla was not at his allotted sleeper berth. In a calculated move, he had upgraded to an AC coach and kept shifting seats and even compartments during the journey to throw investigators off his trail. When the train finally rolled into Ahmedabad in the early hours, the ED team—waiting in coordination with railway staff—cornered and arrested him.

“He was constantly on the move inside the train, changing seats, even changing compartments, but he could not escape once the train halted,” an official recounted.

Following his arrest, Singla was produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai, which remanded him to ED custody. During interrogation, he was kept under 24/7 watch to prevent any attempt at self-harm. He is currently in judicial custody till October 7.

Assets in question

The ED is now working to identify and attach assets equivalent to the ₹16.10 crore proceeds of crime. But officials concede the task may prove difficult. Singla, they say, comes from a modest middle-class background and is unlikely to own substantial property of his own.

“In the absence of traceable funds, we will look at immovable or movable assets, but early indications are that he may not have anything of comparable value,” a source said. This raises the grim prospect that victims—BOI and its account holders—may face permanent losses.

For the Bank of India, the scandal has dealt a reputational blow. That an insider could siphon off crores by targeting the most vulnerable account holders has raised questions over internal controls, audit mechanisms, and monitoring of dormant and special-category accounts.

Despite attempts, HT could not contact the bank’s officials at the BOI Bandra branch, where the accused worked, over a comment on the case.

The CBI and ED are now running parallel probes—the former focusing on corruption and breach of trust, the latter on laundering of diverted funds. While the CBI laid the foundation with its FIR in August, the ED registered its own case this month to follow the money trail.

Both agencies are expected to file charge sheets in the coming months, though the prospects of financial recovery remain slim. “With the funds gone into speculative pits, the case now hinges on criminal accountability rather than restitution,” a source said.