Auditors at a Northern Indian airport stumbled upon more than numbers last year: an elaborate embezzlement scheme stretching over three years and implicating a senior finance official in one of the largest alleged frauds in the history of the Airport Authority of India.
From Routine Audit to Alarming Discovery
When an internal audit at the Dehradun airport began poring over financial records from recent years, few anticipated the scale of irregularity lying beneath the surface. What started as a review of capital asset entries soon unraveled into a staggering revelation: over ₹232 crore suspected to have been siphoned into personal accounts belonging to Rahul Vijay, a senior manager in charge of finance and accounts.
The process, officials say, hinged on a pattern of abnormal asset capitalization entries, duplication of work orders, and a maze of fictitious financial maneuvers that only meticulous scrutiny could bring to light.
Fabricated Assets and Fictitious Transfers
Investigators detailed how the scheme operated, shedding light on both the ingenuity and audacity behind it. As an authorized signatory to the airport’s official bank accounts, Vijay allegedly wielded unprecedented control over financial flows. He exploited this power by creating non-existent capital assets at one point generating ‘assets’ worth ₹189 crore whose only reality was on paper.
The method was simple yet devastating: duplicate legitimate work orders, then inflate figures sometimes merely by adding a zero to direct payments into his own accounts. In at least one instance, he mirrored genuine assets with seventeen additional fictitious entries, funnelling the resulting funds himself and to a cooperating contractor.
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Cloaked Transactions and Digital Trail
The sophistication of the operation extended to exploiting digital vulnerabilities in banking oversight. Vijay developed and operated three distinct user identities for the airport’s State Bank of India accounts, according to the formal complaint. Early, small-scale transfers acted as tests for the system’s weaknesses; once successful, they gave way to much larger sums.
While the accounting records purportedly showed brisk progress on infrastructure like a ₹67.81 crore electrical contract for a new terminal—they in fact disguised multiple, compounded transfers derived from the same original entries.
The Fallout and Path to Prosecution
The discovery prompted a swift—if belated—response, with a committee convened to investigate and, ultimately, to file a formal complaint with federal authorities. Chandrakanth P, another senior finance manager at the airport, lodged the complaint that formed the basis of an official fraud investigation by economic crime units.
The size and scope of the alleged embezzlement, officials say, raises serious questions about internal controls, banking oversight, and digital safeguards in public infrastructure projects. As the probe gathers momentum, investigators are piecing together the complex web of accounting, asset inflation, and unauthorized fund diversions that, for several years, quietly siphoned resources meant for public use.