Chairman of the Western India Regional Council (WIRC) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Shriniwas Joshi, categorically denounced threats of physical violence made against one of the members of the chartered accountant community. Joshi was speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day diamond jubilee conference of the WIRC held at MIT College on Saturday.

Joshi was reacting to the threat of physical assault allegedly made against city-based chartered accountant Arun Anandagiri by a fellow chartered accountant earlier this week. Anandagiri had interrupted the inauguration on Saturday morning to make a public disclosure of the threats made against him.

Anandagiri also requested the chairman to address the issue of conflict of interest involving professor SB Zaware, central council member of the ICAI and founder of Zawares Professional Academy Pvt Ltd. DNA had reported how the Pune chapter of ICAI had suspended a training contract outsourced to Zawares Professional Academy in July 2009 following allegations related to conflict of interest (Turmoil in ICAI Pune; council man under scan; Sept 30). The suspension of the training contract followed a complaint lodged by Anandagiri to the ICAI headquarters in New Delhi and the Pune office on September 12.

The complaint highlighted the fact that Zaware was given the training contract despite the ICAI rules specifying that the training had to be undertaken by the ICAI branch itself. Zaware was later elected as a council member of the ICAI headquarters in December 2009 and he continued to run the training programme without informing the ICAI headquarters. In the recent case, Anandagiri has shot off a complaint to the ICAI headquarters in New Delhi through his lawyer citing the incident when he was threatened with physical harm in Zawares presence.

Anandagiri said, I was meeting a group of chartered accountants, which included Zaware, at a city club on Tuesday, when I was categorically asked to withdraw my complaint against Zaware, failing which one of the chartered accountants in the group actually threatened me with physical harm. When contacted, Zaware denied that the threat was directed at Anandagiri. Yes, I was there for the meeting. However, the threat was made with a general reference and not directed at Anandagiri. WIRC chairman Joshi told DNA that Anandagiris complaint against Zaware was being studied by the ICAI president in New Delhi.

The president has told me that he was studying the details of the case and would make his recommendations to the ICAI council in due course. Meanwhile, we denounce any attempt to physically harm any of our members. We are an intellectual community, and there is no room for physical violence, Joshi said.