Fraud office may look into RoC report on Subhiksha

Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) may look into the report of the Registrar of Companies (RoC) on debt-ridden retail chain Subhiksha, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Saturday.

Stating that he was yet to look into the report presented by the Registrar of Companies recently, Khurshid told reporters here that the Ministry would take appropriate action as and when required.

“I was out of Delhi for a week... These reports (from RoC) will come to me after I reach there. Then we will take appropriate action that need to be taken,” he said. “SFIO is the next level of procedure... We do through the RoC... Sending something to the SFIO does not mean like passing a judgement,” he said to a specific query whether the RoC report would be forwarded to SFIO. “These are routine matters... They will go to SFIO in the normal course,” he said. RoC had started investigations into the financials of Subhiksha Trading Services following complaints by ICICI Venture, which has an exposure of around Rs 106 crore in the retail company.

The investor had asked the Chennai RoC to conduct an investigation into the affairs of Subhiksha from April 2007 onwards. ICICI Venture had charged the management of the retail chain with keeping its investors in dark on financial matters of the company.