NEW DELHI: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which is investigating the IL&FS fraud case, is likely to submit its report on the role of Credit Agency by next week and will soon file its second charge sheet in the case. The SFIO and IL&FS’s new board are investigating four credit rating agencies ICRA, CARE Ratings, India Ratings and Brickwork Ratings for discrepancies in the ratings action for IL&FS Group companies.
“The probe is on and a detailed report on the role of Credit rating agencies will be sent to the Ministry (of Corporate Affairs) latest by next week. The agency is working on all the details. A second charge sheet will be filed soon in the case,” a senior official from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs told this publication.
On Monday, the ICRA board had placed its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Naresh Takkar under forced leave with immediate effect. Officials said that the action was taken allegedly for the complaint against Takkar in the same case as IL&FS defaulted repayments despite investment grade ratings. It is interesting to note that Takkar, who has been heading ICRA for five years, was recently appointed by the Reserve Bank of India as a member of a panel on the development of the housing finance securitisation market.
IL&FS credit instruments had been rated triple-A when the defaults began prompting the government to replace the board and launch a clean-up. This was the highest credit rating, even when IL&FS and the various group entities owed about Rs 90,000 crore. The government has taken a strong note of it and after a go-ahead from the ministry, the SFIO has questioned all the credit rating agencies involved with the IL&FS.
The SFIO had filed its first chargesheet in May after investigating the fraud in the IFIN and has named 30
accused, including top management and auditors.