Investigation Agency Charges Airports Company Executive with Financial Misconduct

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Rahul Vijay, a senior manager at the Airport Authority of India (AAI), over allegations of embezzling over Rs 232 crore.

The FIR, based on a complaint filed by AAI senior finance manager Chandrakanth P., alleges that Vijay, who was heading the finance and accounts branch at AAI's Dehradun airport from 2019 to 2023, engaged in fraudulent activities that included siphoning off funds into his personal accounts, inflating figures for payments to contractors, and creating fictitious assets.

The alleged embezzlement was detected in an internal audit of AAI's Dehradun airport and was found to be due to abnormal capitalisation of assets in the financial records between 2019-20 and 2022-23. The embezzlement involved the creation of non-existent capital assets and duplication of legitimate work orders.

Vijay is also accused of transferring money to a contractor of the AAI for the same work and inflating the figures, with the funds being funneled into his personal accounts through these manipulations. An amount of Rs 43 crore was fraudulently charged off under various revenue expenditure heads during the specified period.

In addition, Vijay is said to have created three different user IDs for clandestine fund transfers. On 29.09.2021, he created fictitious assets worth Rs 189 crore by duplicating and adding one zero to 13 original assets worth Rs 13.58 crore.

The complaint further alleges that Vijay introduced a complex accounting system at AAI's Dehradun airport, which was subsequently found to be fraudulent. The official responsible for this was Vinay Kumar Srivastava.

AAI has constituted a committee to verify the findings, which highlighted a complex trail of fictitious accounting entries, asset inflation, and unauthorised fund transfers. The FIR will be probed by the economic offences unit of the CBI.

This development comes at a time when the AAI is already under scrutiny for various irregularities and financial mismanagement. The authorities are yet to comment on the matter.

Investigation Agency Charges Airports Company Executive with Financial Misconduct