In a major development, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ( ICAI ) has said that the chartered accountant, who has been arrested along with an Excise and Taxation department officer (ETO) for an alleged fraud of Rs 52 crores is not a chartered accountant.
Earlier, there were reports that “A Chartered Accountant and an Excise and Taxation department officer (ETO) have been arrested for an alleged fraud of Rs 52 crores. The said news was published in a couple of eminent publications dated April 17, 2018.
ICAI, the apex-regulatory body of chartered accountants in India immediately contacted the concerned police and VAT authorities and collected details about the accused Rakesh Arora.
After verifying the same with the data available with the ICAI, it was found that the accused is not a Chartered Accountant as his name does not appear in the Register of members maintained by the ICAI.
In view of the above, it is a matter of grave concern for ICAI that in the aforesaid matter neither the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Police verified the credentials of the person in question with ICAI before issuing a statement to the media, nor the Publications cross-checked the validity of the statement with ICAI before publishing the story. The Institute has already taken up the matter with SIT, Gurugram and has pointed out that such statement should not be issued to media before verifying the facts with ICAI.
“It would also be requested that in future if any such case comes for their investigation wherein there is an alleged involvement of an individual claiming to be a Chartered Accountant, the matter is first referred to ICAI for cross verifying the credentials from its records. The news which has appeared in a section of media certainly has maligned the reputation of Chartered Accountants in the eyes of public and has thus lowered the image and credentials of CA profession,” said a report.
