It began as a routine government exercise. In mid-January, officials from Haryana’s Directorate of Treasuries and Accounts (DTA) wrote to a Chandigarh branch of IDFC First Bank, seeking the closure of several long-running accounts and the transfer of the balances to the government’s Axis Bank account. As part of the standard reconciliation practice ahead of the fiscal year-end, the DTA compared the bank’s balance confirmations with figures in the government’s Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). The figures did not tally: deposits reflected in the government’s books were missing from the bank’s statements.