Cobrapost hits back at audit report clearing DHFL

New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) Terming the independent audit report, which earlier this week gave a boost to the share price of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), as "a classical case of window shopping", Cobrapost on Friday said that the report submitted to the SEBI failed to answer all the questions it had raised.

Earlier, Cobrapost had alleged that the primary promoters of DHFL siphoned off over Rs 31,000 crore of public money through loans and advances to shell companies and other means to create private wealth for themselves.

A statement by Cobrapost said: "Adopting a selective approach, in a classical case of window shopping, the auditors examined the transactions of DHFL with 26 entities for loans aggregating to Rs 11,522 crores ... leaving out all the entities that were identified in the expose.

"A closer look at the report, which was submitted to the SEBI by DHFL Chairman and Managing Director Kapil Wadhawan on March 5, 2019, makes it clear that the audit carried out by T.P. Ostwal & Associates has left more questions than answered."

Cobrapost said that the scope of the audit was "examination in respect of transaction relating to the company only". The ambit of the audit was, thus, limited to DHFL only and does not include examination of other companies associated with the Wadhawans or shell companies which were used to siphon off the funds from DHFL.

Besides, the investigative newsportal said there is no attempt on the part of the auditing company to source information from the Ministry of Company Affairs, Registrar of Companies (RoC), SEBI, Income Tax Department or other bodies, which could enlighten its report.

"If the auditor's report is to be believed, then the audited annual reports filed with the MCA are false and incorrect."