Airport Authority of India manager arrested for siphoning off Rs 232 crore

The CBI has arrested a senior manager of Airport Authority of India for allegedly siphoning off over Rs 232 crore of the public sector company’s funds into his personal account for trading purposes, officials said Saturday.

AAI senior manager (Finance & Accounts), Rahul Vijay, orchestrated the transfer through a complex trail of fictitious accounting entries in three years during his posting at Dehradun Airport Vijay indulged in a systematic scheme of fraud and embezzlement of AAI funds by manipulation of official and electronic records, a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

“During the investigation, it has emerged that in the period 2019-20 to 2022-23, the accused, while posted at Dehradun Airport, manipulated electronic records by creating duplicate and fictitious assets and inflating the values of certain assets, including by adding zeros to entries so as to evade routine detection,” she said.

In its preliminary analysis of bank transactions, the agency found that the funds so credited were thereafter transferred to “trading accounts” by the accused, thereby siphoning public money.

After the anomalies were red-flagged in the internal audit, the AAI constituted a committee to preliminarily verify the findings, which highlighted a complex trail of fictitious accounting entries, asset inflation, and unauthorised fund transfers from the authority’s accounts to Vijay’s personal accounts.

AAI senior manager (finance) Chandrakanth P filed a formal complaint with the CBI on August 18, which became the basis of the FIR to be probed by the Economic Offences Unit of the agency.

The agency recently conducted searches at the official and residential premises of the Vijay in Jaipur, which led to the recovery of incriminating materials, including documents on immovable properties and valuable securities.

Vijay’s alleged manipulation involved the creation of non-existent capital assets and the duplication of legitimate work orders, enabling him to funnel massive sums into his personal bank accounts, they said.

It is alleged that Vijay was the authorised signatory in AAI’s official bank accounts with the State Bank of India, created three different user IDs for the official AAI account to facilitate a clandestine transfer of funds. He allegedly tested the system initially with minor transactions before escalating to larger amounts.

“He has shown an asset creation of about Rs 189 crore in the official records, which never existed...only to get the money transferred to his personal accounts,” the complaint alleged.

Vijay allegedly transferred money to the contractor of the AAl, and for the same work, he transferred money to his own account by inflating the figure.

“For example, on 29.09.2021, he created genuine assets worth Rs 67.81 crore for the New Terminal Building Phase 1 electrical work. On the next date, he created 17 additional fictitious assets of Rs 189 crore out of the above-mentioned 13 original assets valuing to Rs 13.58 crore by adding one zero and duplicating the entries and got the entire money transferred in his account.

“Further, an amount of Rs 43 crore through fraudulent entries were charged off under various revenue expenditure heads at different dates during the said period,” the complaint alleged.