 "Police grill Jignesh Shah and Anjani Sinha together")
Police on Friday interrogated Shah jointly with the former MD & CEO of National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), who is under arrest in a case related to the Rs 5,600-crore payment scam at the exchange. Shah, who spent time at the crime branch from 11:30 am to 6 pm, was also questioned alone. This was the second time the FT chairman and group CEO was questioned by the police.
After the interrogation, Joint Commissioner of the Mumbai police crime branch Himanshu Roy told journalists while Shah was not being placed under arrest, there would be further rounds of questioning to investigate his role. A decision on his arrest would be taken later, after his role in the crisis was ascertained, Roy said.
During the joint interrogation, police asked Sinha to explain his latest affidavit, in which he had blamed the entire NSEL board for the crisis. Sinha was said to have stood by his latest affidavit and maintained that the board, including Shah, was aware of the impending payment crisis at the exchange. This would be a major blow for Shah, who had sought to distance himself from the crisis by blaming the management headed by Sinha for the defaults.
Roy said during preliminary investigation, it was found the selection of borrowers by the exchange was arbitrary and the management of the exchange was running a pure financial scheme. He said Shah had not revealed anything about repayment of the undisputed amounts to investors.
While leaving the EOW’s office, Shah told reporters: “The law will take its own course. EOW is inquiring into the matter. My heart is with the investors.”
The additional commissioner at the EOW, Rajvardhan, said Joseph Massey, former managing director of MCX-SX (the stock exchange of FT-promoted MCX), and other directors would also be called for questioning.
NK Proteins’ Nilesh Patel was also interrogated on Friday, he said. Rajvardhan said affidavits filed by Sinha and others had little evidential value, but EOW was looking into an exchange of mails, board meetings, and board documents.
In another development, the NSEL Investors Forum, which has lost money due to the scam, met Mumbai police officers and told them it wished to lodge a complaint against the auditors of the exchange, Deloitte and Ernst & Young.
According to NSEL, 24 of its borrowing members owe Rs 5,572 crore to the exchange. The exchange had defaulted on payments to about 13,000 investors such as MMTC, citing non-payment of dues by the 24 defaulters. So far, the 24 have collectively paid about Rs 160 crore, or about three per cent of the total dues.
The settlement crisis at NSEL came to light on July 31, when the exchange abruptly suspended trading in all but e-series contracts (these were suspended a week later) without assigning any reason. This might have been due to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs directing the exchange not to offer futures contracts.