The Delhi High court has recently granted bail to Chartered Accountant (CA) Sunil Bhatia accused in the Bhushan Steel case. The case was registered by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in 2019.
The allegation against the Chartered Accountant was that he is a Chartered Accountant and one of the partners at ASRN & Associates [the firm appointed as stock auditors by the consortium of banks led by Punjab National Bank (PNB)) for Financial Year 2015-16] failed to perform his duty independently and diligently by not verifying the stock in transit, and he is accused to be in collusion with the office bearers of M/s Bhushan Steel Limited.
Before the High Court, the Chartered Accountant argued that the promoters of BSL, along with some other accused persons, filed various false deceptive statements and misleading information to various banks to avail and continue to avail working capital limits from 2013-14 till 2015-16. It is further alleged that the applicant’s firm was appointed by the bank, Punjab National Bank, and they colluded with the BSL and did not discharge their duties diligently.
Justice Jasmeet Singh has observed that the Applicant was appointed as a stock auditor vide appointment letter dated 29.10.2016 for conducting stock audit of BSL for the year 2016 – 2017. As per the Stock Audit Report dated 15.02.2017 by the applicant firm it pertained to the period 01.04.2016 to 31.10.2016. Hence, the stock audit report did not pertain to the period under investigation.
“A bare perusal of the above answer shows that the Punjab National Bank (PNB) did not lay much emphasis to the audit report given by the applicant. Even if I see the audit report, the audit report shows that the applicant had raised serious issues, and no loan should have been advanced based on the asset classification and Position of Accounts in the stock audit report,” the Court said.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to TaxscanAdFree. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates.
