Major fire burns vital records at SHCIL’s underground vault in Navi Mumbai

Moneylife Digital Team 12 December 2017

Economy & Nation

A major fire, believed to have been caused by a short circuit is understood to have burnt down vital records of Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL), one of country’s top share custodian. According to preliminary reports, the fire damaged entire basement of SHCIL’s operations office at Mahape in Navi Mumbai which has three levels of vaults that stores some of the most vital documents relating to Indian business.

Since most people that we have attempted to talk to are tight-lipped, there is no record of the extent of damage and the documents that have been burnt. SHCIL has made no attempt to inform stock exchanges, which were completely unaware of the fire until 4pm, although it is reported to have broken last night. Eyewitnesses say that they were asked to leave the premises last even as thick smoke engulfed the office.

Fire officials on the spot told us that the fire broke out even earlier at about 5.45pm on Monday and fire brigade from across the area is trying to douse the file. “Even now (at 4.20pm Tuesday), we can see heavy flames in the basement. SHCIL officials told us that there were documents inside the vault, which are burning. Our officers are unable to even enter the premises due to heavy smoke there,” S Chaudhary, Officer, Fire & Emergency Services, Navi Mumbai, told Moneylife.

The fire also raised concern of the 127 truck loads of documents sbumitted by Sahara to SEBI. However, speaking with Business Line, Ramesh NGS, Chief Executive and Managing Director of SHCIL, said, most Sahara documents were safe.

Over 10 fire tenders from fire stations of MIDC, Vashi, Airoli and Thane Belapur Industries Association (TBIA) are still fighting to douse the flames at SHCIL’s underground vault.

SHCIL, in a statement, stated, "The repository where the physical documents of StockHolding Document Management Services are stored have been affected partially. The extent of loss of property is yet to be assessed. There is no injury or loss of life due to this incident."

The company also said that the fire was restricted to one of the four bays at the basement level and all major operations, including the data centre, are up and running.

So what exactly does the SHCIL facility contain? The core documents under its custody are held by a subsidiary organisation known as SHCIL Document Management Services (earlier known as SHCIL Projects). Almost every major contract and agreement relating to loans, pledges, international funding, public-private partnership agreements and a wide range of commercial agreements of banks and institutions with borrowers were kept in the safe custody of SHCIL vaults. We understand there is a massive insurance cover on these documents too. However, there is no estimate as yet about the extent of damage and what has been affected.

SHCIL is the largest custodial and depository services provider to brokers and institutional investors in the capital markets and banking sector.

Comments

User

sohan modak

8 years ago

sounds like a set up-p on one hand and a monumental goof up by SHCIL which should have digitized all docs. But, then, that is what is India.. who cares?... chalti ka nam gadee!...

Parimal Shah

8 years ago

Same Old trick used now by white collar guys.
Earlier this trick was used by real estate mafias to usurp the land.
Now white collared people are trying to usurp fiscal and all type of assets including money in different forms.

Blank Indian

Replied to Parimal Shah comment 8 years ago

100% correct.This is an old trick.Other areas where such short Ckt.occures are Tehsildar's land record rooms,Bank loan record rooms,Rooms where govt.contract records are kept.Funnily these fires never take place at own houses of the officials.

Ramesh I

8 years ago

It's a shame the Govt doesn't force agencies like SHCIL to use digital options to upload customers' data, which can be kept backed up at multiple locations for additional safety from natural calamities too. The DigiLocker facility for citizens to upload their important documents in the Govt managed online secure digital locker is sufficient for most individuals, but Govt should ensure even organizations like SHCIL, which are custodians of critical financial details of consumers also do so. Of course, such 'fire accidents' do occur in even Govt offices (like the one at Maharashtra's Mantralaya a few years ago) 'conveniently' destroying crucial Govt & citizens' records. Hope that is not the case in this SHCIL case.

Mallika (Mallika) Chellappa

8 years ago

Whenever there is a fire, I suspect an attempt to destroy evidence. There is a field called disaster management and recovery, which, apart from helping creatures in distress, also aims at protecting vital data resources in such a scenario. Can a scanned copy of a destroyed original hold water in court? Only time will tell, and in Indian courts, that may be a very long time! Of course, backups of digital records are acceptable, provided there is an audit trail and it is unblemished and secure

SuchindranathAiyerS

8 years ago

In a country where hard copies are not safe, what price digital records? I am glad that the last of my RBI issued Govt bonds have matured and been repaid. Other wise they might have got caught up in an unscheduled "abil in" of the Indian State: