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DCA may extend Ferguson probe to check fraud

The Department of Company Affairs, which has been conducting searches at the accounting firm A F Ferguson's Mumbai office since Monday in the wake of audit relating to the Tata Finance scam, said the probe may be extended to inspection of available data under the provisions which also relate to fraud.

A six-member DCA team, headed by Registrar of Companies, Mumbai, had on Monday conducted a search and seizure operation at the Ferguson office under Section 234 A of the Companies Act, when it came to know, on Sunday, that the firm was shredding documents relating to Tata Finance. If necessary the probe may be extended to include inspection of Ferguson's books under Sections 209 A and 237 (fraud) also, officials said.

Meanwhile, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata said on Tuesday that he was not consulted by former TFL managing director Dilip Pendse on investment decisions made by the non-banking finance company.

"It is absolutely untrue that I was consulted by Pendse and I was not involved in TFL and its issues," Tata told newspersons after the annual general meeting of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd in Mumbai.

"The first time, I was informed was when Pendse called me up in Dubai in April 2001. If I was involved why would he contact me," he said adding, the matter would be sorted out in the court.

Pendse, in his affidavit filed in Bombay high court had said that Tata was aware of all the investment decisions made by TFL.

All investments of TFL were collective decisions endorsed by the entire board, he had added.

Earlier in the AGM, Tata said no depositor or shareholder in TFL was allowed to suffer a loss and the group has put in Rs 500-700 crore (Rs 5-7 billion) in the company as a moral responsibility.

DCA while acknowledging that it has received the report Ferguson has compiled on TFL besides the company's books of accounts for the last five years, said Ferguson's was not the statutory audit report of TFL and it could still be used to detect if any irregularities were committed by the company.

Agencies

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