Calcutta, Feb. 23: Kaustav Ray, whose company RP Infosystems has been charged with forgery and fraud that led to the arrest of Shibaji Panja, today said IFCI Factors had conspired to malign his firm before the relaunch of one of its products.

At a news conference at the Press Club, Ray accused Delhi police of violating a Delhi court order and adding stringent sections.

IFCI Factors is a subsidiary of IFCI, a government-run financial institution. IFCI Factors had extended credit of Rs 18 crore to RP Infosystems against invoices from purported customers. The police allege that the invoices were fabricated and that the purported customers had told them that they did not buy computers from RP Infosystems.

"It appears to be a conspiracy on behalf of IFCI Factors, to which we owe some money. Their baseless allegations are intended to hamper our business when we are on the verge of relaunching Chirag computers in April," said Ray, who got together with Panja to form the company around 1999.

Ray said he did not suspect any "political motive" behind Panja's arrest but wanted to prevent his company's name from getting dragged into controversy with the arrest of one of its former directors.

"Panja left the company one and a half years ago. But he was one of the directors when all this happened. I don't see any political motive behind this arrest, rather it appears to be a deliberate ploy to malign my business," Ray told the news conference.

Ray today denied Delhi police's allegations of forgery. "The question of forgery and cheating does not arise. IFCI representatives used to directly confirm the transactions from the debtors and carry out inspection of the supplied goods at regular intervals. How can IFCI now claim that the documents we submitted were forged if they themselves checked them?" Ray asked.

Delhi police have said they were also investigating whether any IFCI Factors officials had any role in the alleged foul play.

Ray alleged a conspiracy by some insiders at IFCI Factors, including a top official allegedly involved in the Saradha scandal.

"Some officials of IFCI Factors, in a bid to save their skin, have lodged a false complaint against my company and are now influencing Delhi police to tweak the investigation in their favour. I would lodge a criminal case against them. I demand a probe by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate in this case," Ray said.

According to Ray, a Delhi court had reviewed the complaint and had instructed the police to start a case only under Section 465 of the IPC - a bailable section dealing with forgery.

"The police, for reasons best known to them, violated the court's order and added other sections. Some of the sections are more stringent than Section 465 of the IPC," Ray said.

Delhi police have slapped several sections that deal with using forged documents, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

According to the police, Panja had failed to respond to the summons and notices, prompting them to issue lookout circulars, on the basis of which Panja was arrested when he returned to Calcutta with chief minister Mamata Banerjee from Bangladesh on Saturday night.

Ray, however, claimed that the police did not issue any summons before bringing out the lookout notices.