The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Rahul Vijay, a senior manager at the Airports Authority of India (AAI), for allegedly diverting Rs 232 crore from public funds into his personal accounts. The arrest follows a First Information Report (FIR) filed by AAI after uncovering irregularities in financial transactions at the Dehradun airport.
Rahul Vijay, who headed the finance and accounts branch at Dehradun Airport from 2019 to 2023 and is currently posted at Jaipur Airport, allegedly manipulated official and electronic records to siphon funds. During searches at his official and residential premises in Jaipur, the CBI recovered documents relating to immovable properties and other valuable assets, suggesting a systematic fraud.
According to the investigation, Vijay created duplicate and fictitious assets and inflated asset values, in some cases by simply adding “zeros” to entries, to evade detection. Preliminary analysis indicates that the diverted funds were subsequently transferred to trading accounts, effectively laundering public money.
The irregularities came to light when ChandraKanth P, Senior Manager in AAI’s Finance Department, reviewed asset records from 2019-20 to 2022-23. He discovered abnormal capitalisation of assets and immediately flagged the matter. A verification committee confirmed that Vijay had passed false entries and misappropriated Rs 232 crore between February 2019 and August 2022.
The FIR alleges that Vijay created three separate user IDs for AAI’s official bank account at SBI and used a combination of small and large transfers to move funds to his personal accounts undetected. He reportedly fabricated assets worth Rs 189 crore, duplicating or inflating legitimate entries to justify the transfers.
In one instance, on September 29, 2021, Vijay recorded genuine assets worth Rs 67.81 crore for electrical work on a new terminal. The following day, he allegedly created 17 fictitious assets totaling Rs 189 crore by inflating 13 original assets, channeling the money into his personal accounts. An additional Rs 43 crore was allegedly misappropriated through fraudulent entries under various expenditure heads.
The CBI has initiated a detailed probe into the transactions and is scrutinising Vijay’s bank accounts and financial dealings to trace the flow of public funds. The case highlights vulnerabilities in financial controls at government agencies and raises serious concerns about oversight mechanisms in AAI’s accounting operations.
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