IL&FS scam: Here is the list of key players and allegations they are facing

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has filed its first charge sheet against the top officials and directors of IL&FS, its auditors, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, BSR and Associates and C Sivasankaran in the IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) fraud case. Here is the list of key players and the allegations they are facing. None of them is convicted by the court.

Ravi Parthasarathy

The former chairman of IL&FS is accused of fraud with intent to injure the interests of the company, its shareholders, and lenders resulting in wrongful loss to the company. According to the SFIO, Parthasarathy was heading the coterie controlling the day-to-day affairs of IFIN. In order to avoid the accounts turning into an NPA, he kept on evergreening the loans.  The loans were ultimately written off. The SFIO has charged Parthasarathy and others under Section 447, 417, 420 read with 120B of the Indian Penal Code among other charges. Parthasarathy now lives in London.

Ramesh Bawa

Part of Parthasarthy's inner circle, the then MD and CEO of IFIN is presently in judicial custody. Bawa had not disclosed his interest in AAA InfoSystems and AAAB Infrastructure in which his wife and daughter were directors. Bawa will be prosecuted under Section 184 (4) of the Companies Act, 2013. AAAB Infa had entered into transactions of approximately Rs 12 crore with Unitech Ltd, one of the defaulting borrowers of IFIN.

Udayan Sen

Former CEO of Deloitte and statutory auditor of IFIN colluded with the management of IFIN and IL&FS and falsified the books of accounts for the financial years 2013-14 to 2017-18. The members of the audit committee also connived with the coterie and overlooked their violations of the norms resulting in a loss for the company. Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP, which is also an accused, has denied all the allegations.

Hari Sankaran

Former vice-chairman of IL&FS is a co-accused with Parthasarthy and is facing the same charges. He is currently under judicial custody. The other accused are  IL&FS directors Arun Saha, Vibhav Kapoor, K Ramchand and other directors. The SFIO alleges that the accused took several favours from defaulters including furnishing of their apartments in Brussels in return for approving their loans.

Kalpesh J Mehta

The statutory auditor of IFIN failed to perform his duties diligently and did not use professional scepticism to ensure true and fair disclosure of state of affairs of the company. The other accused are: N Sampath Ganesh, Shrenik Baid along with the other auditing firm, BSR & Associates LLP. They, in fact, colluded with officials of the company, to conceal the fraudulent activities and thus failed in their duties as required under Section 143 of the Companies Act, 2013 the SFIO said. The auditors are facing charges under the Section 143 and 147 of the Act. BSR & Associates has denied the allegations.

C Sivasankaran

Chennai-based entrepreneur connived with the management of the IFIN and received wrongful gain in the form of loan from IFIN with intention to not repay the same.  The Siva group gave dud shares of Tata Teleservices as collateral to keep raising more money from IFIN. Sivasankaran has not responded to this newspaper's queries.