SFIO to be armed with additional powers

The government is likely to arm SFIO, an investigating wing of the Corporate Affairs Ministry, with powers to interrogate and seize documents among others, following the complaints that it faced problems in probing the multi-crore Satyam accounting fraud.     

The move comes amid requests from the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) functionaries who wanted requisite powers to call for documents and question people to effectively probe grave corporate frauds.     

The new Company Bill, 2009, which is currently being looked into by a Parliamentary Standing Committee, is expected to provide statutory status and powers to the SFIO like any other investigating agency.     

Speaking to reporters, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, said, "We (SFIO) require some more teeth, some more investigation powers to be given to them and other powers that go with investigations."      

Pointing out that the SFIO would be given statutory and legal powers in line with the Vepa Kamesan Committee report, the minister said, "The biggest problem with us is that we can neither do requisition nor could we keep the records."   

"We certainly could not interrogate. We certainly could not investigate. That is the problem...I think that (committee recommendations) would be taken care of in the bill.", he added.