There are many suspicions the investigators have on the bank transactions and the financial claims made by Heera Group of Companies’ managing director Nowhera Shaikh.
A curious one among them is the unusual pattern of changing the Chartered Accountant (CA) almost every financial year for the group, comprising 15-odd companies, including Heera Gold, Heera Textiles and Heera Foodex.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) Avinash Mohanty told The Hindu that every year, the group, which had floated several investment schemes and claimed to have an annual turnover of over ₹ 800 crore, constantly changed their CA. “Business groups which have huge annual turnover usually will not change their auditor every year. So, this practice of Heera Group is very shady,” he said.
The investigators reportedly grilled three CAs who audited the company accounts but in vain.
Surprisingly, most of the companies in the group had a constant profit of 36 % all these years, Mr Mohanty said. Ms Shaik, who is currently lodged at a prison in Mumbai, was arrested by Hyderabad police in Delhi and brought her to city on November 16.
Founder of the Mahila Empowerment Party, which contested the Assembly elections in Karnataka earlier this year, she was booked for cheating investors. According to police, the transactions of the Heera Group were under the radar of Reserve Bank of India, Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate, Registrar of Companies and other finance regulatory bodies.
Mr Mohanty said that the company promised the depositors returns of 36% per annum and most of them are from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and recently a case was registered at Calicut in Kerala.
Deposits from Gulf countries were also received, he said and added they have identified 160 bank accounts of which a few were closed.
“Over 100 bank accounts had only ₹ 25 crore, while its turnover is much higher,” he said, adding that they requested the banks for transaction statement of the those accounts.
The 45-year-old managing director had paid ₹ 55 crore of income tax for her companies and completely different papers were submitted to RoC.
“Usually, big companies will have continue to have a CA for at least five years to audit their accounts, subjected to various reasons” said a city-based CA Ramakrishna.
Recently, Economic Offences Wing of Hyderabad police arrested Molly Thomas (50), manager and personal assistant of Ms Shaik.
Mr. Mohanty said that they have found substantial incriminating evidences against Ms Molly, a key person who takes care of administration in Heera Group of Companies. “She had destroyed some key documents of the group,” he said.
