FIR against ex-GBU registrar, accounts officer for Rs 5-crore fee fraud

Noida: Gautam Buddha University (GBU) has filed an FIR against its former registrar, Vishwas Tripathi, and 11 others over an alleged fraud of more than Rs 5 crore, accusing them of siphoning off student fee payments and masking the diversion through fake UPI transactions in the university’s software.Officials said the money was collected from students as academic fees, shown as received in digital records, but never deposited in its official bank accounts.The FIR, lodged at Ecotech-1 police station, names Tripathi, then registrar and drawing and disbursing officer, along with Neeraj Kumar, finance officer; Shilendra Kumar Sharma, accounts officer; Vijay Pratap Singh and another Kumar from the accounts section; and outsourced data-entry and office staffers Mukesh Pandey, Shiv Kumar Khatri, Shivam Chattha, Sandeep, Shyam, Naveen and Subhash Sharma.According to the university’s complaint, the suspected fraud surfaced when a routine reconciliation of accounts for 2024-25 started in April 2025. The review found that fee payments worth over Rs 5 crore had been entered in the university’s software but were missing from GBU’s bank accounts.The university has alleged that regular accounts section employees, acting in collusion with outsourced data-entry staff, embezzled the money deposited by students. To conceal this, fake UPI transaction IDs and receipts were allegedly generated and entered into the fee software, creating the appearance that payments had been properly processed even though the funds never reached the designated bank account.Tripathi, the complaint said, had served as the university’s chief administrative officer since 2020 and, as registrar and DDO, had custody of public funds and direct control over staff in the accounts and finance departments. The university has accused him of failing to verify bank reconciliations against software entries, thereby allowing the alleged misappropriation to continue.It has also alleged that Tripathi had exclusive administrative and operational control over the CCTV system in and around the accounts office. The university said a fact-finding committee asked him three times for relevant footage, but he did not provide it.The complaint further stated that the alleged embezzlement and its concealment distorted the university’s financial statements, with the statutory chartered accountant firm allegedly relying on fabricated and unreconciled bank statements and causing substantial loss to the university treasury.A three-member inquiry committee headed by NM Singh, former joint director and inspector-general of police at CBI headquarters, New Delhi, was later set up to examine the irregularities. The university said the panel found serious administrative and financial lapses, poor supervision and criminal misconduct during Tripathi’s tenure.The university has said the Rs 5 crore figure is based only on reconciliation for 2024-25 and that the actual amount may be higher. It has now begun a wider examination of financial records for the past four years.“In view of the sensitivity and gravity of the matter, the university administration took prompt action and lodged an FIR against 12 individuals,” GBU said in a statement. It added that strict disciplinary action is being initiated against those found responsible and that it is following a “zero-tolerance policy” while pursuing an impartial investigation and all necessary legal steps.The case against Tripathi and the others was registered under sections 316(5) and 61(2) of BNS, dealing with criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.