Final Settlement [Thread 595210]

Dear Sir/Madam,
if the employee left a month and a half ago completed his handing over documentation but his final salary along with the PF has not been processed and after this month and a half period since the last working day the employer pointed out something missing and then asks the employee to come back and get it sorted stating that if not they will not release the final settlement. Now my question here is that according to law how long can the employer hold onto the final salary and the provident fund and in this particular case do they have a right to hold on to it considering the things might have gone missing after the employee had left.

First of all just because some item is missing it cannot be attributed to employee who left.
Did he do a handing over taking over?
Was the said item under his charge?
Many questions will arise.
Is the item very costly?
PF balance cannot be held up anyway.
At best you can speak to the employee and try to find out.
Systems to check items held by employee before exit need to be strengthened.
Mere suspicion is no ground to hold up his salary etc.