Reliance Communications (RCom) on Thursday questioned the conduct and action of special auditors of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India regarding leakage of a report in which the company was allegedly charged with reporting bogus revenue figures and licence fee evasion.
Accusing his rivals of being behind the “vicious campaign,” RCom Chairman Anil Ambani said it was being done to damage the reputation of his firm and to hammer share prices of his other group companies.
“We will soon lodge a formal complaint with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to probe the hammering of our group stocks over the past few days. We will also lodge a formal complaint with the cyber crime police authorities to investigate the dissemination of false and malicious e-mails against our group from bogus IDs. We will take up the conduct and actions of the special auditors with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India through our statutory auditors,” Mr. Ambani said in a statement.
Alleging that the campaign was aimed at creating panic and loss of confidence in the group’s 1.1 crore shareholders, Mr. Ambani said he would take up the matter with the Telecom Ministry. “And if there are any legitimate dues found payable towards licence fee, RCom shall naturally make the payment,” he added.
According to a leaked report by government-appointed auditors, RCom has allegedly overstated revenues by about Rs.3,000 crore and evaded over Rs.300 crore in licence fee.
“The special auditors, apparently at the instance of our corporate rivals, have far exceeded their terms of reference and recorded unwarranted and completely incorrect findings on matters beyond the scope of their audit, thereby again demonstrating their bias and prejudice,” Mr. Ambani charged.
He further alleged that rivals were indulging in distribution of papers in unsigned and unmarked envelopes, spreading rumours about the company and its employees.
