Mumbai, Dec 23: In a revised progress report submitted on Monday to Justice SN Variava of the Special Court adjudicating the securities scam, the Harshad S Mehta (HSM) group has stated that audited accounts of the nine notified parties will be furnished to the auditors appointed by the Special Court by April 1998.

The Special Court in February 1994 had appointed three chartered accountant firms, Kalyaniwalla & Mistry, Kapadia Damani & Co and Natwarlal Vepari & Co auditors for preparing statements of accounts and liabilities of the notified parties for the period between April 1, 1990 and June 8, 1992.

The court will take up the matter again sometime in January. The auditing of the books of accounts of the nine main notified parties was taken up essentially to find out the exact amount recoverable from them. Following the February 1994 order, around 29 companies of the HSM group companies too started sending their accounts to the special court auditors.

The nine notified parties include Harshad S Mehta, Jyoti H Mehta, Ashwin S Mehta and their three brokering firms, Growmore Research & Asset Management Ltd, Growmore Exports Ltd and Growmore Leasing & Investment Ltd.Justice Variava had directed the chartered accountant firms in the order dated February 3, 1994 that "as far as possible the work should be completed within a period of six months".

After receiving a status report in January, 1996, the custodian, appointed under the Special Court (Trial of Offences Relating to Transactions in Securities) Act, 1992 in an application filed in February 1996 mentioned the slow progress made by the chartered accountants mainly in the absence of all the particulars being asked for.

The custodian also submitted to the court that the nine notified parties were not co-operating fully with the chartered accounts by producing all the necessary material and particulars.

Subsequently, Justice Variava in the `minutes of order' passed in February this year set a time limit for submission of the audited accounts for each notified party.

For Sudhir S Mehta (SSM), March 31, 1997 was the deadline set by the Special Court. According to the status report filed by the HSM group on December 22, the accounts for 1990-91 were submitted to the special court auditors on May 9, 1997. However, these were returned by the auditors on the grounds of non-payment of fees in arrears.

As regards the accounts for 1991-92 and upto June 8, 1992 of SSM, the accounts are substantially drawn and final verifications is underway. The likely date of submission of these accounts is January 31, 1998.

In the case of Growmore Leasing & Investment Ltd, the accounts for 1990-91 were given to the Special Court auditors on May 9, 1997, which were returned as the same were not audited. The deadline set by the court for submission of these accounts was March 31, 1997.

The accounts for 1991-92 and the period upto June 8, 1992 of the company are under final verifications and expected to be submitted on February 28, 1998.The Growmore Research & Assets Management Ltd's accounts for the 1990-91 period are estimated to be submitted by January 31, 1998 against the deadline of May 31, 1997 set by Justice Variava.

The firm's accounts for the remaining period are likely to be submitted on April 30, 1998.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.