AAI Senior Manager Accused of Rs 232 Crore Fraud, Arrested by CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Rahul Vijay, a Senior Manager with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), for allegedly siphoning off nearly Rs 232 crore of public funds. The case was registered after AAI flagged serious financial irregularities during his tenure and sought action.

According to the CBI, Rahul Vijay was posted at Dehradun Airport between 2019 and 2023 and was later serving at Jaipur Airport before his arrest. Investigators alleged that while posted in Dehradun, he committed a systematic fraud through manipulating official and electronic data. This fraud includes establishing duplicate and bogus assets, exaggerating data, and even adding extra zeros to entries to escape discovery during routine audits.

The complaint alleges that Vijay misused his position as an authorised signatory of AAI’s bank accounts to transfer funds into his personal accounts. It is alleged that Vijay, while serving as an authorised signatory of AAI’s official State Bank of India account, set up three separate user IDs to carry out the fund transfers. To avoid raising suspicion, he allegedly began by moving smaller sums and later transferred huge amounts. In one instance, he is accused of creating fake assets worth Rs 189 crore by duplicating existing entries and padding figures with extra zeros. He also allegedly transferred about Rs 43 crore under various revenue expenditure heads over multiple dates.

Preliminary investigations by agency indicate that the embezzled cash were then teams to trading accounts, implying an attempt to invest the diverted assets.

On August 28, the CBI carried out searches at Vijay’s home and office in Jaipur, recovering property documents, securities, and other materials linked to the alleged fraud. The agency confirmed that Vijay is in custody and being questioned.

The CBI added that it had obtained prior approval from the competent authority under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act to initiate the probe.

This is considered one of the significant financial fraud cases reported in AAI. The investigation is ongoing, and more details are expected as the money trail is tracked.