The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is a statutory corporate fraud investigating agency in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Initially, it was set up by a resolution adopted by the Government of India on 2 July 2003 and carried out investigations within the existing legal framework under section 235 to 247 of the erstwhile Companies Act, 1956. Later, Section 211 of the Companies Act, 2013, accorded the statutory status to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). It is under the jurisdiction of the

Ministry of Corporate Affairs The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is an Indian government ministry primarily concerned with administration of the Companies Act 2013, the Companies Act 1956, the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2 ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

& primarily supervised by officers from Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Corporate Law Service, Indian Revenue Service and other Central Services. The organisation has experts from various financial sector domains. The SFIO is mandated to conduct Multi-disciplinary investigations of major corporate frauds. It is a multi-disciplinary organization having experts from financial sector, capital market, accountancy, forensic audit, taxation, law, information technology, company law, customs and investigation. These experts have been taken from various organizations like banks, Securities and Exchange Board of India,

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and concerned organizations and departments of the Government. Based on the recommendation of

Naresh Chandra Naresh Chandra (1 August 1934 – 9 July 2017) was a 1956 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, who served as the Cabinet Secretary of India, Defence Secretary of India, Home Secretary of India, Water Resources Secretary of India and Indian A ...

Committee on corporate governance (which was set up by the Government on 21 August 2002) and in the backdrop of stock market scams as also the failure of non-banking companies resulting in huge financial loss to the public,

Vajpayee Government Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of India, first from 16 May to 1 June 1996, and then from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vajpayee was the tenth Pri ...

decided to set up SFIO on 9 January 2003.

Organisation structure

Agency headquarters is in the Indian capital, New Delhi, with field offices located in major cities throughout India. The SFIO draws most of its officers from the ICLS,

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and banks & other central services. The current SFIO director is Keshav Chandra (IAS). Many Additional, Joint and deputy director level officers are from ministry 's parent cadre, Indian Corporate Law Service. The agency has four regional offices in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

References

{{Domestic national intelligence agencies Fraud Indian intelligence agencies Ministry of Corporate Affairs Vajpayee administration