 "Court summons Shah, 67 others in NSEL case")
All the accused, including Financial Technologies India (FTIL) founder Jignesh Shah, MCX-SX’s Joseph Massey and former NSEL chief executive Anjani Sinha, have been asked to be present before the court on July 7. “The court has taken cognizance of it. The trial should be in presence of all accused as it is a non- bailable offence,” said an ED source.
The enforcement agency had prosecuted NSEL and 67 others in March last year under the PMLA over Rs 3,721.22 crore of money trail.
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To prosecute a person means to officially accuse someone of committing a crime in a court of law or to try to prove that a person accused of committing a crime is guilty of that crime.
In an e-mail response, an NSEL spokesperson said, “The ED filed a chargesheet last year and the hearing was scheduled on May 16, which got adjourned to July 7. These are normal court proceedings/ hearings and we request to report only the court proceedings and outcome so that the process of law is not unduly influenced.”
The hearing on the chargesheet was stuck as the court had raised some objection to it last year, which was rectified by the agency. The accused in the case was summoned earlier in May but the case was adjourned.
The ED in its first chargesheet had explained the criminal conspiracy undertaken by the people at the helm and in the middle-rung of the NSEL that led to the cheating of depositors and creation of ‘tainted’ assets.
“A supplementary chargesheet could be expected,” said a source cited above.
It registered a criminal case under PMLA in 2013 to probe the case along with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police. The probe agency has so far made an attachment of worth Rs 600 crore in the case.
Jignesh Shah was arrested by the EOW and released on bail in August 2014. He has resigned as the managing director of FTIL and become its Chairman-Emeritus.
The ED's huge attachment came from N K Proteins, one of the largest defaulters, whose liabilities on the exchange are estimated at Rs 900 crore.
The agencies have also attached the assets of Mohan India worth Rs 125 crore, another big defaulter in the scam with initial liability of Rs 922 crore.
Among the other defaulters that faced the authorities’ wrath are Spincot Textile and PD Agro Processor Ltd, with attached assets worth Rs 84 crore and Rs 50 crore, respectively.
The matter came into light on July 31, 2013, when NSEL failed to pay its 13,000 investors in commodity pair contract. Due to this, investors have lost nearly Rs 5,600 crore as it was found that NSEL had neither the money nor the stocks to pay them back. This followed the consumer affairs ministry directive not to issue fresh contracts that cross the 11-day timeline. These contracts were in violation of the norms. There were 24 members who defaulted on payment to NSEL investors.