A South Delhi Flat Ties Ex-Assocham Official To Alleged Multi-Crore Diversion — Profit Exclusive

Documents from 2023 show transactions involving alleged shell entities and a company called Biz Connect Tradefair Services, which had a Vasant Kunj address in New Delhi. NDTV Profit has reviewed the veracity of these documents.

This Vasant Kunj flat was, at least till 2021, the residential address of an erstwhile deputy director at the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, Kaushal Gupta.

The Economic Times had first reported on Feb. 6 that auditors at Walker Chandiok & Co. were investigating a whistleblower complaint against the country's oldest industry association.

However, in emailed responses sent to NDTV Profit on Feb. 12, both Assocham and Walker Chandiok have countered the report. "Walker Chandiok & Co. LLP is not carrying out any such investigations in relation to Assocham," the auditor wrote.

Documents from 2023 show transactions involving alleged shell entities and a company called Biz Connect Tradefair Services, which had a Vasant Kunj address in New Delhi. NDTV Profit has reviewed the veracity of these documents.

This Vasant Kunj flat was, at least till 2021, the residential address of an erstwhile deputy director at the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, Kaushal Gupta.

The Economic Times had first reported on Feb. 6 that auditors at Walker Chandiok & Co. were investigating a whistleblower complaint against the country's oldest industry association.

However, in emailed responses sent to NDTV Profit on Feb. 12, both Assocham and Walker Chandiok have countered the report. "Walker Chandiok & Co. LLP is not carrying out any such investigations in relation to Assocham," the auditor wrote.

At the heart of the claims, counter claims and money trails lies a whistleblower email from October last year, addressed to the likes of JSW's Sajjan Jindal, Spicejet's Ajay Singh, Niranjan Hiranandani of the eponymous real estate group and BK Goenka of Welspun, among others. All four have been past and present Assocham members.

The whistleblower's allegations talked about financial irregularities being carried out by Assocham office bearers through alleged shell entities.

The email focused on the misuse of grants under the commerce ministry's Market Access Initiative Scheme. The scheme offers subsidies to industry players through the chambers of commerce and associations for participating in trade fairs abroad, conducting promotional activities, and developing export competitiveness.

Assocham received more than Rs 90 crore from the MAI funds in the last five years to organise exhibitions from fiscals 2020 to 2024, the whistleblower claimed.

Over the past few years, these grant funds were channelised into private pockets in the garb of sub-contracting MAI exhibitions for Assocham, primarily in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America, the whistleblower said.

Registration documents reviewed by NDTV Profit show that these alleged shell entities were set up in 2022, by people with direct links to certain senior Assocham members, former and current, including senior executive Dilip Mishra and then Deputy Director Kaushal Gupta.

Gupta's residential address, at least till 2021, was a non-descript flat in the upscale New Delhi neighbourhood of Vasant Kunj. The same Vasant Kunj flat which also shows up in transactions and invoices, involving Biz Connect and one of the shell entities.

The whistleblower claimed that the commerce ministry stopped granting funds to Assocham from April 2024, after an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. NDTV Profit was not able to verify this.

However, as per documents reviewed, the Department of Commerce had sought a routine vigilance meeting with erstwhile Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood, over MAI grants as early as December 2022.

This meeting was attended by senior Assocham employees directly reporting to Sood, including Kaushal Gupta and Dilip Mishra.

After the meeting, as per a follow-up email that was reviewed, the commerce department sought additional information about events, for which, Assocham received the MAI grants. But this was not provided even by January 2023.

This was followed by the Chief Controller of Accounts deputing a non-routine internal audit of Assocham in January 2024, another document showed.

NDTV Profit was not able to verify the outcome, and neither Assocham nor the body's chief accounting officer responded to queries about what this non-routine audit yielded. Mishra continues to report to the chief accounting officer.

But, if the whistleblower is to be believed, this was soon followed by the commerce ministry stopping MAI grants to Assocham. NDTV Profit has reached out to the Ministry of Commerce for a verification.

Kaushal Gupta, the former employee tied to the Vasant Kunj flat told NDTV Profit that though he had resided in the apartment at some point of time, he had moved out of the address about four years ago. He also said that he was not aware of a company called Biz Connect that has the same address on its bank account.

Gupta said he left Assocham six months ago, after the non-routine audit was deputed. Mishra, however, continues to be a part of the industry body.

Both of them agreed that their relatives had indeed been involved in partnership deeds of the subcontractors involved with Assocham, albeit erroneously, and claimed that those deeds were now annulled. NDTV Profit was not able to verify their claims.

They did not comment on whether Assocham was made aware of connections between its employees and the subcontractors before the latter's services were hired. Assocham, too, did not respond to the question.

Former secretary general Deepak Sood did not reply to queries, and neither could his successor Manish Singhal be personally reached for comments.