Gurgaon: A city court has ordered an FIR against a former director of a firm along with nine others for siphoning off company funds and other charges. The development comes almost three years after the company detected the irregularities.Sushant Lok police station SHO has been directed to register the FIR against 10 people — including former Ramprastha Promoters and Developers director Arvind Walia — in accordance with law and conduct “a fair investigation”.Other allegations pertain to removing computers and confidential records, tampering with account access and threatening company officials. The case will be lodged under sections 408, 420, 120-B, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC.A compliance report on FIR registration has to be submitted before the court on Oct 3.Besides Walia, the other accused — all of them employees — are Ashish Ahluwalia, Ashish Yadav, Rati Pal Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Namit Malhotra, Nikhil Jain, Deepa Aggarwal, Rajinder Rathi and Sudeep Sharma. The original complaint and relevant documents are to be forwarded to police, the court said.“Investigators would need to identify the persons who operated the accounts, examine the financial transactions, trace the siphoned funds and recover computers, files and DVRs,” the court said on Sept 7 following a petition filed by Ramprastha Promoters and Developers through its authorised representative Pushpendra Singh in Jan 2024.According to the complaint, Walia, who was entrusted with the company’s affairs and financial transactions, connived with other employees/persons to misappropriate substantial company funds for his benefit, causing a huge loss to the company.The court said the allegations went beyond a private dispute over accounts or recovery of money and required a police investigation to trace the diversion of funds and recover and forensically examine electronic devices and documents.The company said financial irregularities were flagged on Nov 16, 2023, by NPS Chauhan, executive assistant to the chairman. An ensuing inquiry allegedly revealed substantial withdrawals by Walia. The complaint alleged that employees were instructed not to disclose the transactions to the chairman or directors.The company also alleged that access to its account server was blocked after its password was changed and employees refused to share financial and project-related information with directors.Another allegation concerned removal of company data and equipment. According to the complaint, director Sandeep Yadav sought project information from Namit to ascertain customers’ payment status, but Malhotra refused, saying Walia had instructed him not to share information without his permission.The complaint alleged that Malhotra later contacted Sanjay, following which other accused persons arrived at the company’s office to collect files, computers, laptops, documents and DVRs containing confidential, proprietary and financial information.The company told the court that despite approaching police, an FIR was not registered.The court observed that the allegations included alleged misappropriation of company funds, removal of computers and documents, taking away electronic devices and DVRs, alteration of passwords/access, injuries and criminal intimidation.It said recovery, preservation and examination of electronic devices and financial records, including forensic analysis wherever required, could not effectively be undertaken by the complainant and required police intervention.Holding that the allegations, if taken at face value, disclosed cognisable offences and that police investigation was necessary for collection and preservation of evidence, the court allowed the application under Section 156(3) of the CrPC.
