Criminal case against former staff of CCTV firm for diverting 1.4 cr

Hyderabad: A former employee of a city-based CCTV and ELV solutions firm has been booked by Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad, for alleged diversion of 1.4 crore in customer payments.The complainant, Mohammed Zubair Osmani, proprietor of IPSYS company and director of HOOPOE Infotech Pvt Ltd, alleged that former employee Syed Salahuddin Ahmed misappropriated company collections by routing them to personal UPI accounts. The complaint named Ahmed as the principal accused, his wife Afshan Jabeen as co-accused, and their associate Syed Jalal as a suspected conspirator.Osmani stated that Ahmed worked for him in sales and collections between Nov 23, 2020, and Dec 18, 2025, and was entrusted to collect payments only into company bank accounts or official UPI IDs, and to update internal accounts only when the accountant was unavailable. "The fraud was detected on Dec 15, during an internal verification that found mismatches between settlements shown in our accounting software and actual bank credits," the complainant told police. An internal audit indicated payments were made to unauthorised UPI IDs linked to Jabeen.The complaint said Ahmed admitted on Dec 17 to diverting funds, and that illegal diversions continued even after the admission, including on Dec 18. A reconciliation accounting done by a chartered accountant firm for the complainant identified a repeated pattern involving partial deposits to company accounts, back-dated or manipulated accounting entries, and suppression of receipts routed through Jabeen's UPI accounts.The complaint cited certified diversions of 60.56 lakh between April 1, 2025 and Dec 17, 2025, and 85.71 lakh between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, totalling over 1.46 crore, with a note that the overall amount could be higher pending forensic review since the accused worked for them since 2020.Osmani also alleged that after the fraud was detected, he received threatening calls on Dec 27 from a person identifying himself as Md Khan. "The caller allegedly claimed to be speaking on behalf of Ahmed and threatened to damage complainant's business property," a CCS official.Police registered a case under Sections 316(4) (Criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant) and 344 (Falsification of accounts) read with 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 43 read with 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act on Sunday. "We are analysing the case particulars and appropriate legal action will be initiated against the accused based on the findings of preliminary probe," an investigator said.