Anil blames it on auditors & rival groups.

ANIL Ambani on Thursday said the special auditors, who had alleged in their report that Reliance Communications ( RCom) inflated its revenues and evaded payment of the full license fee, were acting at the behest of corporate rivals out to hammer down share prices of his group companies.

Ambani announced that he would be " lodging a formal complaint with Sebi ( Securities and Exchange Board of India) to probe the hammering of our group stocks over the past few days, which is part of the vicious campaign to create panic and loss of confidence among the group's 1.1 crore shareholders". " We will take up the conduct and actions of the special auditors with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ( ICAI) through our statutory auditors," he said.

" We are also lodging a formal complaint with the cyber crime police authorities to investigate the dissemination of false and malicious e- mails against our group from bogus IDs," he added. The accounting controversy broke out after excerpts from a report by governmentappointed auditor Parakh & Co were leaked and RCom shares fell sharply.

Ambani made a public statement in response to the auditor's allegation that RCom had overstated revenues by about Rs 3,000 crore and evaded license fee to the tune of Rs 300 crore.

He said he would take up the issue raised in the special audit report with the telecom ministry and others. " If there are any legitimate dues found payable towards licence fee, RCom shall naturally make payment of the same," he added.

He alleged that the special auditors, " apparently at the instance of our corporate rivals, have far exceeded their terms of reference and recorded unwarranted and completely incorrect findings on matters beyond the scope of their audit, thereby again demonstrating their bias and prejudice". RCom shares fell eight per cent in the last three days and by as much as 28 per cent in October to close at Rs 229.20 on Thursday.

Ambani said a similar campaign was unleashed against another group company Reliance Power when its initial public offering ( IPO) was launched. " This time too, all these events are being stage- managed and blown out of proportion by our known corporate rivals, at a time when there are important developments concerning our group," he pointed out.

AMBANI who is locked in a bitter court battle with his elder brother Mukesh, did not name his rivals in the statement.

Ambani said the campaign was being orchestrated at a time when the group has filed the draft prospectus for Reliance Infratel's IPO and the important hearings in the gas matter are coming up before the Supreme Court next week.

Regarding the special audit, Ambani said that as per the licence terms and conditions, the department of telecom ( DoT) had appointed special auditors in early 2009 to examine the records of all major telecom operators, including RCom, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Tele and Idea.

" Even before a copy of the alleged special audit report on RCom was made available to us, selective extracts were shockingly leaked and widely distributed to the media clearly indicating the hidden intent and mala fide design," Ambani said.

The crucial aspect is that all these revenue figures have been reported by the firm itself in its filings with the stock exchanges, DoT and Trai, he said.

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