{
  "id": 15667194,
  "title": "Mumbai: Court Denies Bail To Former Bank Of India Officer In ₹16.10-Crore Fraud Case Involving 127 Customers",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/mumbai-court-denies-bail-to-former-bank-of-india-officer-in-16-10",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-19T22:37:44.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Press Journal",
    "slug": "free-press-journal",
    "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/mumbai-court-denies-bail-to-former-bank-of-india-officer-in-1610-crore-fraud-case-involving-127-customers"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Mumbai's special court denied bail to former Bank of India officer Hitesh Kumar Singla, who is accused of stealing roughly ₹16.10 crore from 127 customers. Singla's lawyer argued that even though he allegedly misappropriated the funds, he did not use them, and thus should be granted bail as the investigation was concluded. However, the court rejected this defense, noting that Singla transferred approximately Rs. 1.42 crore of the stolen funds to his fiancée's gaming accounts and misrepresented the money's source to her as legitimate. The court emphasized that Singla used the login credentials of other bank employees to exploit technical loopholes in the Finacle core banking software, defrauding vulnerable customer accounts including those of deceased individuals, minors, senior citizens, and dormant accounts. ED prosecutor Arvind Aghav supported the prosecution's case, citing Singla's voluntary confession, digital footprints, bank records, and statements, which corroborated the claim of systematic misappropriation of customer funds.",
  "summary": "Mumbai, October 19, 2026: A special court has refused to grant bail to former Bank of India (BoI) officer Hitesh Kumar Singla, who has been booked for allegedly siphoning around Rs 16 crore from 127 customer accounts at the bank. Singla's lawyer had claimed that although he had siphoned off the funds, he had not used them. The defence contended that whether he had used the proceeds was a matter…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}