Two Gurugram NGOs Allege Rs 44 Lakh Cheque Fraud

GURUGRAM: Two city-based non-governmental organisations have alleged that a former employee and several associates diverted more than Rs 44 lakh from their bank accounts over nearly four years. Sector 14 police registered separate FIRs on August 10 after complaints from Vimarsh Prakashan Foundation and Vichar Vinimay Nyas Trust.

The accusations remain allegations at this stage. Police will need to examine original cheques, bank records, email trails and the role of every person named before responsibility can be established. No finding of guilt follows simply from an FIR.

Signed cheques and altered statements alleged

The complainants say the former employee handled banking and routine expenses and had access to signed cheques kept at the offices. They allege that some cheques were completed in his name or in the names of people known to him, and that money was withdrawn or transferred without authorisation.

The first organisation has alleged that nearly Rs 20 lakh was diverted between June 2022 and April 2026. The second has alleged transactions totalling about Rs 24.6 lakh between November 2022 and February 2026. The complaints say discrepancies surfaced after the employee stopped reporting to work in May and older bank statements were obtained directly.

The alleged concealment is central to the inquiry

One complaint says bank statements received in PDF format were converted or reproduced as spreadsheets before being shared internally, with entries related to disputed transfers allegedly removed. Investigators will have to compare those copies with statements certified by the bank and trace the beneficiary accounts.

The FIRs invoke provisions relating to cheating, forgery, use of forged documents, criminal conspiracy and theft. Those sections describe the accusations being investigated; they are not a verdict. Statements from the accused side and documentary responses will also form part of a fair inquiry.

A governance warning for small organisations

Whatever the investigation concludes, the complaints expose a control weakness common in small trusts and associations: one person may prepare payments, hold signed instruments, receive statements and reconcile the books. That concentration makes errors harder to catch and misconduct, if it occurs, easier to conceal.

Basic safeguards are unglamorous but effective: no blank signed cheques, two independent approvals for payments, bank alerts to more than one office-bearer, direct monthly statement downloads and periodic reconciliation by someone who does not handle transactions. The police case will determine what happened here. Other organisations need not wait for that outcome to close the same gaps in their own accounts.