HR employee booked for Rs 22L fake billing fraud

Ahmedabad: A private firm on Bopal-Ambli Road on Saturday lodged a complaint with Bodakdev police alleging that one of its employees siphoned off over Rs 22 lakh by creating fake consultancy bills and routing payments to multiple bank accounts.According to the FIR, the complainant, an IT executive with the company, stated that the firm operates from a corporate office on Bopal-Ambli Road and employs around 130 staff across its group entities. The employee in question, who handled recruitment and consultancy payments as part of the HR team, is accused of misusing her position to fabricate invoices. The fraud came to light on Feb 21 when the accounts department flagged a suspicious commission bill generated in the name of a consultancy firm. Officials detected discrepancies in employee details, including inflated salary figures and invoices for candidates who were not hired through consultancies. Further internal scrutiny revealed that similar fake bills had been raised in the names of several consultancy firms over a period of months. These invoices were allegedly presented as genuine, and payments were processed after TDS deductions, lending them an appearance of legitimacy. Investigators found that between June 2025 and Feb 2026, payments of Rs 20.1 lakh were transferred to accounts of various consultancies based on forged invoices. Additionally, Rs 2.2 lakh was deducted as TDS, taking the total financial irregularity to Rs 22.3 lakh. Police said the accused had been entrusted with managing recruitment processes and coordinating with external consultants for hiring. Exploiting this role, she allegedly generated fake billing entries for non-existent placements and diverted funds to select bank accounts. When confronted by the management, the employee reportedly stopped reporting to work and was later terminated in late Feb. The company subsequently carried out a detailed audit before approaching the police. "The accused misused her access and generated fake consultancy bills under the guise of legitimate recruitment transactions. The money trail is being examined," a police official said. A case of cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery has been registered. Police are now probing the role of the consultancy firms involved and whether others were complicit in the fraud. Further investigation is underway.