Kolkata, Dec 5 The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), the investigation arm of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs, will conduct forensic audits into alleged financial irregularities by a Calcutta High Court-appointed committee, which was overseeing the refund of investors' money in the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam
The SFIO will take over the investigation in the matter following an order of a division bench of the Calcutta High Court.
The division bench of Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Justice Uday Kumar directed the SFIO to take up the task of forensic audit of the alleged financial irregularities by the Calcutta High Court-appointed committee headed by Retired Justice Dilip Kumar Seth, which was constituted to oversee the process of returning money to the investors of Rose Valley Group.
Although the division bench passed the order on this count during the second half on Thursday, the copy of the order was uploaded on Friday.
The division bench directed SFIO to complete the forensic audit exercise and submit a report in the matter to the court within the next three months. The next hearing in the matter will be on December 11, and by then, the additional solicitor general will submit the Central government’s feedback on the order to the court.
Earlier, in September, another division bench headed by Justice Bharadwaj and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashid directed the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to conduct the forensic audit in the matter.
However, since the market regulator recently expressed its inability to the court to take the assignment, the division bench has now directed SFIO to take up the task of conducting a forensic audit in the matter.
While assigning SEBI the task of conducting a forensic audit, the Calcutta High Court observed that in the face of charges of irregularities against the committee headed by Retired Justice Dilip Kumar Seth, which was observing the process of returning money to the investors of Rose Valley Group, a forensic audit report was necessary.
The division bench also observed that since SEBI had a specialised accounts wing, the entity would be best suited to carry out the work of conducting the forensic audit in the matter.
However, SEBI refrained from accepting the assignment citing the reason of the shortage of specialised persons for conducting such a sophisticated exercise.
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