Man behind Rs 100-cr Husain art deal is accused of forgery

In their police complaints, the CAs claim they realised their signatures had been forged after Income Tax officials called them in for questioning.

Shetty filed his complaints on January 11 in the Vakola police station and Kothari in March with the MRA Marg police station in South Mumbai.

HDFC, too, has filed a complaint with the MRA Marg Police on March 18 and sent a reminder to the police on April 5.

When contacted, Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy said: ‘‘The complaints are now with the EOW which is investigating the case.’’

Asked about the home loan for the Lokhandwala flat, the legal officer of HDFC, S N Shroff, told The Indian Express: ‘‘Srivastava had come to us as a self-employed person. We took the balance sheets as true. After inspecting the property, which is mortgaged to us during the term of the loan, we released the amount.’’

Records show that Srivastava (as sole proprietor of his companies), has declared incomes of Rs 49,253 for the financial year 2001-02 and Rs 1,32,640 for the financial year 2002-03 in his income tax returns.

The Swarup Group became a private limited company in 2004. In the Profit and Loss Account statements bearing what Shetty calls his forged signatures, the Swarup Group’s income for the FY 2001-02 is shown as Rs 17.23 crore.

Shetty—who has once done business with the Swarup Group—complained to the police that Srivastava had forged his signatures on audit reports and statements of profit and loss accounts for four years from 2001 to 2004.

He sent a copy of his complaint to the police commissioner’s office on January 15.

‘‘Life has been hell for me for the last three months ever since I was called by the Income Tax department on January 10 to answer questions on these documents,’’ said Shetty. ‘‘That’s when I realised that my signature had been used.’’

Shetty made another complaint related to two applications—seeking deduction of tax at source given for money being sent abroad—to Standard Chartered Bank’s M G Road Bank in Mumbai’s Fort area.

The amounts are US $45,000 and US $88,229 and the forex certificate has the seal of Shetty’s company and his signature, different from his usual sign.

The remittances were to one Jiao Cheng Chan, China, and S K Shipping, Singapore.

The Indian Express sent Standard Chartered Bank a questionnaire over e-mail but despite repeated reminders there was no response.

In his complaint, the other CA, Vasantraj Kothari, said it was in March that he found his signature and seal (both wrong) with his correct registration number used on balance sheets of a firm called G S Chemopharma, whose proprietor is Srivastava.

According to the complaint, these balance sheets, for the years ending March 1999, March 2000 and March 2001, were submitted by Srivastava to take the HDFC loan.