The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ( ICAI ) has last day clarified that the person arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police for cheating clients is not a Chartered Accountant.
Earlier, a leading newspaper has published a news item titled “EOW books Ghatkopar CA for cheating 50 clients of Rs. 7.40cr”. The article stated that “Acting on a complaint filed by Mahendra Moger, Superintendent of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) department and Central Excise department, Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police booked Chartered Accountant Kalpesh Shamji Shah…”
The content of the news item mentions about the Chartered Accountant who allegedly cheated his clients on the pretext of depositing service tax and pocketed Rs. 7.40cr by issuing fake challans.
After verifying the details, the ICAI found that Kalpesh Shamji Shah is not a Chartered Accountant as his name does not appear in the Register of members maintained by the ICAI.
“In such sensitive cases, the concerned correspondent ought to have verified the facts with the Institute before issuing any statement wherein the involvement of a Chartered Accountant is suspected. The contents of the story published thus are incorrect in so far as the reference to Chartered Accountant is concerned,” ICAI said.
The Institute further requested that in future, if any such news item appears wherein there is an alleged involvement of Chartered Accountant, the matter may be referred to ICAI for cross verifying the credentials from its records, before going to the Press.
