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Allahabad HC upholds POCSO conviction; reaffirms child victim’s sole testimony sufficient if credible

Allahabad High Court noted that the victim’s statements remained completely unwavering and were fully corroborated by medical and forensic evidence, and thus she qualifies as a ‘sterling witness’

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Rajesh Exports shares hit 5% lower circuit for third session on alleged Rs 15.15 lakh crore fraud

Shares of Rajesh Exports (REL) tumbled 5% to hit the lower circuit at Rs 94.50 on Monday, marking the third consecutive session of sharp losses after market regulator Sebi accused the company of orchestrating an elaborate financial fraud involving alleged revenue inflation of Rs 15.15 lakh crore over the years, personal gold trades purportedly passed off as corporate sales, and investments of Rs 1,035 crore in gold mines.In its findings, Sebi alleged accounting irregularities, diversion of company funds into personal accounts, and a pattern of conduct aimed at misleading investors. The regulator also flagged lapses by the company's auditors and said both Rajesh Exports and its auditors failed to fully cooperate with the investigation.In its 109-page interim order dated June 3, Sebi said its investigation and forensic examination revealed prima facie evidence suggesting that nearly 97-99% of the company's reported revenue may have been inflated. The regulator described the alleged discrepancies as "egregious and unheard of".Pending further directions, Sebi has barred Rajesh Mehta from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities of Rajesh Exports. The regulator has also directed the company to fully cooperate with investigators and ensure true and fair disclosure of its financial statements and related-party transactions."The acts of REL constitute a deliberate device, scheme and artifice to mislead and defraud investors dealing in the shares of REL by portraying an inflated and misleading picture of its operational scale, revenue and financial health," Sebi said in its order.The case stems from a shareholder complaint received in March 2024 that raised concerns over substantial trade receivables reflected in the company's accounts. Following a preliminary review, Sebi initiated a detailed investigation covering the period from April 2020 to March 2024 and appointed BDO India Services as the forensic auditor.Besides restricting Rajesh Mehta from dealing in the company's securities, Sebi has directed Rajesh Exports to furnish all pending information sought by investigators within 30 days. The regulator has also ordered the appointment of a new forensic auditor to conduct a more comprehensive review of the company's books and transactions.Rajesh Exports has denied the allegations. In a press release issued on Thursday, the company said the revenues reported in its financial statements were accurate and contended that Sebi's conclusions were based on a misunderstanding between revenue and EBITDA figures at Swiss refiner Valcambi SA, an indirect subsidiary of the company.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Man Shoots Wife, 25-Year-old Son Dead At Home In Gurugram

Police and forensic teams reached the scene, inspected the house and collected evidence.

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IDFC First Bank shares fall after CBI conducts searches, lender shares update on Rs 646 crore fraud case

The shares of IDFC First Bank fell nearly 1% on Monday morning after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches in six locations, while the private lender announced that it has received the forensic review report from KPMG regarding the fraud case worth Rs 646 crore at one of its branches in Chandigarh.CBI conducted searches at six locations in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Delhi-NCR in connection with the alleged fraud case involving the siphoning of government funds from departments of the Haryana government and the Chandigarh administration.The searches were held on Friday at premises linked to senior Haryana cadre public servants and Noida-based Vipam Consultancy Pvt Ltd and its director as part of an ongoing probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds parked with IDFC First Bank and AU Finance Bank, an official statement said.Also Read | CBI conducts searches in Rs 661 crore IDFC First Bank-AU Finance Bank fraud case"During investigation evidences have surfaced suggesting that the public servants had colluded with bank officials and had facilitated in opening of accounts, transfer of funds and subsequent diversion thereof," the statement said.KPMG's forensic reviewIn an exchange filing released in the post-market hours of Friday, IDFC First Bank said that KPMG's review reaffirmed that the incident arose from collusion involving certain employees or former staff at the branch, some state government employees along with certain third parties. It reiterated that the net principal amount of Rs 646 crore was reported as part of the alleged fraud case.Also Read | IDFC First Bank fraud was isolated case involving collusion, says KPMG“The Bank paid the aforesaid amount and applicable interest to the concerned departments and has recognised the same in the books of accounts in Q4 FY26. The Bank is a victim of this financial fraud and is working with investigative authorities,” IDFC First Bank said.Fraud at IDFC First Bank's Chandigarh branchIDFC First Bank had announced that it has discovered an incident of alleged fraud by some employees at one of its Chandigarh branches in February, involving accounts related to the Haryana government. The lender had received a request from one of the departments of the Haryana government to close its account and transfer funds to another bank. While reviewing the request, it found some discrepancies in the amount mentioned against the balance in the account. This led to a massive 16% crash in the private lender’s share price, to record its worst single-day plunge since March 2020.IDFC First Bank share priceIDFC First Bank shares fell nearly 1% to trade at Rs 71.64 apiece on Monday. The stock is down 16% in 2026 so far. The shares of the company have however gained over 1% in the past one week. The company currently has a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 62,000 crore.Also Read | Why is market crashing today? 7 factors behind selloff(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Hindu National

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Bandi Sai Bageerath continues to remain in judicial custody

Police chargesheet awaits Forensic Science Laboratory report in POCSO case

Strangled, Stuffed In Suitcase, Burnt: Punjab Man Kills Lover's Daughter

The accused has been arrested, and the remains have been sent for forensic examination.

The Times of India

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2 behind DU professor’s murder? Cops probe

Investigators are searching for two masked individuals seen leaving assistant professor Debosmita Paul's housing complex separately around the time of her suspected murder. Police are examining forensic evidence, delivery personnel, and domestic workers, while also addressing security lapses in the gated community.

Mumbai Watermelon Deaths: Poison Found In Fruit But Not In Kitchen, Utensils Or Food, New Forensic Tests Reveal

Zinc phosphide was present in the watermelon and the viscera — but nowhere else in the kitchen. Every surface, utensil and food item tested clean.

산업/기업

긍정적

The curious case of Rajesh Exports: Massive revenues, meagre profits

Mumbai: It is India's fourth biggest company by revenue, but the managing director of precious metals trader Rajesh Exports (REL) apparently doesn't know how and from where it gets the biggest chunk of the revenue, show the findings of a regulatory investigation.In its investigation report, the Securities and Exchange Board of India observed allegedly unscrupulous activities by REL's promoters, such as accounting irregularities and siphoning off of company funds into personal accounts, and also pointed out lapses by its auditors. The regulator said the company and its auditors were non-cooperative."The acts of REL constitute a deliberate device, scheme and artifice to mislead and defraud investors dealing in the shares of REL by portraying an inflated and misleading picture of its operational scale, revenue and financial health," Sebi observed in its report.The company, eponymously named after its chairman Rajesh Mehta, is accused of committing an elaborate financial fraud that includes dressing-up of revenues of ₹15.15 lakh crore over the years, personal gold trades covered up as corporate sales and phoney gold mine investments of ₹1,035 crore, according to the interim report.REL denied the charges of misdeeds. In a press release Thursday, the company said the revenues stated in its financials were correct and that the confusion arose because of a mix-up between Ebitda and revenue numbers at Swiss refiner Valcambi SA, an indirect subsidiary.Sebi has not made any adverse observation with regard to earnings, the company said, claiming that the regulator has only observed suspicion with regard to revenues which was primarily because of confusion over the Valcambi numbers.Numbers don't add upIn fiscal 2025, REL reported consolidated revenue of ₹4.23 lakh crore against a profit after tax of just ₹95 crore, translating into a net margin of barely 0.02%. The year before, on ₹2.8 lakh crore revenue, profit was ₹336 crore.Experts who have studied the Sebi report and the company's annual reports say the numbers did not add up. The business appeared to be operating at margins that were not merely thin but structurally negligible, they said."It looks like a case of pass-through accounting. There is no value creation. It was 'flow of gold' being booked as revenue," said a leading auditor on the condition of anonymity.Sebi, which began the investigations in March 2024 following a shareholder complaint about suspected accounting malpractices, said it found that about 97-99% of REL's consolidated revenues were attributed to its overseas subsidiaries, principally Valcambi. But Valcambi's own accounts, audited by KPMG SA, recorded only processing fees that were about ₹3,027 crore across five years.Valcambi refined gold on behalf of clients and never took ownership of the precious metal or recognised the value of gold as revenue in its books. Yet, Global Gold Refineries AG (GGR), the parent of Valcambi that had no independent operating business, recorded gross revenues running into hundreds of crores by including the gross value of gold that actually belonged to others, according to the Sebi report.Rajesh Exports, which owns GGR through a Singapore subsidiary, used those unaudited figures in its financial statements, significantly bumping up the company's revenue, it said.In its press release, REL said: "The core observation in the order is with regard to the misreporting of the revenues. This has emerged primarily due to confusion because Sebi has considered the Ebitda of Valcambi instead of revenue hence it has stated that there is a difference of about 97% in the revenue.""There is no reason for any listed entity to inflate revenue and maintain the earnings, this will only reduce the margins of the company, which would be adverse to the company," it said.Senior management in the darkThe senior management of REL told regulators that most of them were in the dark about the company's overseas operations and only the promoter, Rajesh Mehta, dealt with those activities."Valcambi SA does not have any gold mine on its own," managing director Suresh Gowda was quoted in the Sebi order as saying. "It refines the raw gold purchased by it from various entities, whose names I do not recollect, as these things are exclusively handled by Rajesh Mehta, chairman of REL. I have never interacted nor involved with any subsidiary/step-down subsidiary of REL, as these were exclusively taken care of by Rajesh Mehta," he told the investigators, as per the order.According to the report, REL booked ₹11,487 crore in sales between 2021-22 and 2023-24 to Affluence Shares and Stocks, a broker that made up to 66% of the company's standalone revenue for that period. But Affluence, in formal depositions to the regulator, said it had not done any business with REL.Following the transaction trail, the investigators found out that the transactions were personal gold derivative trades executed by promoter Mehta using his own brokerage account and then recorded in the company's books as corporate sales, the order said.The investigators also found that Mehta used corporate funds. As per the Sebi observations, bank records show REL transferred ₹338.90 crore directly into Mehta's personal accounts between April 2020 and September 2025.Unlike in the case of Nirav Modi or Gitanjali Gems, who are accused of bank fraud, Rajesh Exports doesn't appear to have borrowed big from banks or through sale of bonds, according to regulatory filings.The company's market cap was just over ₹3,000 crore, as per Thursday's closing share price. LIC (10.8%) and Bridge India Fund (8.46%) are its major institutional shareholders."It is striking that, even at a peak market capitalisation of ₹25,000 crore, the company did not hold any analyst calls, a basic expectation for a listed company of that scale," said Shriram Subramanian, founder and managing director of InGovern Research Services, a corporate governance advisory firm.The regulator in 2024 hired BDO India Services to investigate. But the forensic audit faced problems at almost every stage of the investigation. It was denied access to ERP systems and was not provided a complete journal dump, preventing independent verification of transactions recorded in the books, according to the regulatory report.And the company declined to share subsidiary-level records with the investigator, citing Swiss data protection laws, limiting auditors largely to reviewing financial statements prepared by the management itself rather than underlying evidence, it said.What's also come under the scanner was the conduct of statutory auditors for the last few years: CA PV Ramana Reddy, the proprietor at PV Ramana Reddy & Co, and CA PL Venkatadri, partner at BSD & Co.The company's FY24 and FY25 annual reports, filed with the stock exchanges, carry an unqualified opinion from BSD & Co, which concluded that the financial statements presented a "true and fair view" in line with Indian Accounting Standards.The company's FY24 Directors' Report noted that the statutory and secretarial auditors had made no qualifications, reservations or adverse remarks.The Sebi report said for over five months, the auditors sat on the regulator's request for missing documents and statements.Emails sent to both audit firms did not elicit any response.REL closed 5% lower at ₹103.92 Thursday on the NSE. The shares are down from their peak of ₹1,028.40 on February 6, 2023.

Hotel owner in custody, hunt on for manager: Delhi hotel fire prompts action as 21 dead | Key updates

A forensic team has collected samples from the site and is examining them to determine what triggered the fire at Flourish Stay in Malviya Nagar.

ICU Monitor Emitted Smoke, Then AC Unit Exploded: How Bihar Hospital Fire Turned Deadly Within Minutes

Forensic teams are probing the Muzaffarpur hospital fire that killed four people, as fresh details raise concerns over ICU staffing and emergency response.

The Hindu National

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White Paper on Kerala finances calls for KIIFB overhaul, forensic audit of accounts

The document, however, notes it will be “wasteful” to dismantle KIIFB framework which has built valuable capabilities over the years

Dad opposed Jio-to-Airtel port request: Why Bengaluru techie killed parents

A software engineer, Rohan Chandra, is accused of fatally stabbing his parents in Bengaluru. While initial reports suggested schizophrenia, doctors at Nimhans found him fit, citing financial disputes and a disagreement over a mobile number switch as the motive. Forensic evidence confirms Rohan's blood-stained clothes matched his parents'.

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Twisha Sharma death: Husband, MIL in custody

Bhopal: A court in Bhopal on Tuesday remanded late model Twisha Sharma's husband, Samarth Singh and mother-in-law Giribala Singh, both accused of dowry harassment, in judicial custody for 14 days on completion of their CBI remand.Twisha was found hanging in her marital home in Bhopal on May 12.The CBI produced Samarth Singh and his mother, a retired district judge, in the court of Shobhna Bhalave, after completion of their remand, following which they were sent in judicial custody till June 16, said Twisha's family lawyer, Ankur Pandey.Read More: Twisha Sharma Death Case: CBI seeks five-day remand for Giribala; asks for five-day custody extension for Samarth SinghA day earlier, the CBI reconstructed the circumstances of the former model's alleged suicide at her marital home here using dummies.The central agency, along with forensic and crime scene experts, asked Samarth Singh and Giribala Singh to give a detailed account of happenings on the night of May 12, officials had said.

80-Kg Dummy, Missing Belt: Cops Check Forensic Details In Twisha Sharma Case

For nearly two hours, the CBI recreated the crucial moments surrounding Twisha's death.

80kg dummy, 2-hour re-enactment: How CBI tested Giribala’s version in Twisha death case

CBI recreated Twisha Sharma's alleged suicide, using a dummy to test the plausibility of ex-judge Giribala Singh and her son's account of bringing her down. Investigators are examining the house layout, timing, and forensic evidence. The probe also includes scrutinizing the son's movements and potential evidence tampering, while prison authorities consider security for the former judge.