Mumbai: The ongoing investigation at Axis Mutual Fund on irregularities has widened its scope, said Axis Bank MD and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry, while interacting with CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2022 at Davos.
Chaudhry said this is just to make sure that the investigation doesn’t miss out on anything or anyone. “One of the individuals was a fund manager as well as an equity analyst, so it is important that we look at all the analysts. So, we have expanded that scope,” he said.
He said that the probe will continue for four-six weeks as the fund house is still investigating a few more things and action has been taken on what the fund house has found so far.
Axis Mutual Fund recently terminated services of Viresh Joshi, chief dealer and fund manager at the fund house, as well as Deepak Agarwal, who was a fund manager and equity analyst.
When asked if the investigation was on since the last two months, why was it not disclosed, Chaudhry said that when you undertake suo motu investigation, you can’t announce it to the market.
“If we had evidence, we would have taken action on the first day itself. You have to go through the investigation process, you have to be fair to the individuals involved, and ask them if you find something in the first place, to explain as to what we are seeing,” he was quoted as saying.
Axis Mutual Fund is keeping the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) updated on the ongoing investigation and any new findings.
If the ongoing investigation finds anything against any more individuals, Chaudhry said, appropriate action will be taken.
