Tarun is performing a forensic accounting engagement involving gathering of evidence in relation to suspected fraud of substantial amount in a company. He has been appointed under the terms of a contractual agreement wit

In a forensic accounting engagement, professional undertakes a scrutiny and detailed examination of all transactions and balances relevant to the mandate so that evidence gathered is suitable in a Court of Law i.e. in compliance with legal requirements where it can be challenged through cross-examination by the defending party. It is important that team is skilled in collecting evidence that can be used in a court case keeping a clear chain of custody till evidence is presented in court. If there are gaps in chain of custody, then the evidence may be challenged in court or even become inadmissible. Chain of custody means the chronological documentation, trail that indicates the seizure, custody of digital evidence, control, transfer, analysis and disposition of evidence, physical or electronic. Digital evidence by its very nature is invisible to the human eyes and hence evidence must be developed using sophisticated tools. The chain of custody requires that from the moment the evidence is collected, every transfer of evidence between persons should be documented to prove that nobody else could have accessed to that evidence. If the chain of custody is broken, the defendant can ask the court to declare the evidence as admissible. In the given case, team has failed to keep record of matters such as persons gathering relevant evidence, date and time of collection and storage of evidence. Therefore, team has failed to maintain the chain of custody. It can, therefore, defeat the objective of forensic accounting engagement as evidence may be challenged in Court of law by defending parties and may become inadmissible.