NEW DELHI: A team of SFIO officials on Tuesday swarmed into IL&FS’ landmark building in Mumbai and took charge of the ninth floor that houses the top management, taking control of the server to ensure that no documents would be destroyed.
They collected documents and pen drives, and questioned top executives who were present in the building, including the ousted vice-chairman and managing director Hari Sankaran and joint MD and CEO Arun Saha.
According to sources in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the probe will include the directors and top management, who were appointed, have left or had been sacked in the last one year.
“We are looking at all angles. All appointments and contracts, especially the international one, are being probed. We will question auditors and financial officers of all the group companies. Also, the siphoning of funds to overseas is being examined. If required, we may take help of other agencies,” a senior official told TNIE.
SFIO has already requested ICAI for hiring more chartered accountants for the probe.
Late on Monday evening, lookout notices have been put out at airports to prevent the top brass, including Hari Sankaran, Ramesh Bawa and K Ramchand, by issuing a lookout notice for them at the airports.
Ravi Parthsarthy, the former chairman, has already left the country and is in London for medical treatment. Official sources claimed that in the coming days, a few more executives will come under the scanner.
On Monday, the government said that the Board members and management, rather than exposing the mess, put a lid on the crisis and kept on misguiding investors and regulators.
Parthasarathy quit in July, while Bawa, non-executive director Vibhav Kapoor, and four independent directors of IL&FS Financial Services resigned after a default last month.
Meanwhile, former chairman SB Mathur and independent directors RC Bhargava, Michael Pinto, Jaithirth Rao and Rina Kamath has written to newly appointed chairman Uday Kotak extending support.