Don't believe Sinha except where he takes the blame: NSEL

Scam-hit National Spot Exchange (NSEL) has rapped its controversial ex-chief executive Anjani Sinha’s recent interviews on how his superiors, including promoter Jignesh Shah, were well aware of the developments which led to the scam.

Sinha’s remarks, it stated, were “motivated, with a view to influence investigations and judicial proceedings, which is critical at this juncture”. It also argued his second affidavit to the city police’s economic offence wing, given in October 2013 while in police custody, was not acceptable as evidence, though his first affidavit (given a month earlier) was. In the first one, Sinha had said the management he headed was responsible; in the second, he’d talked about how the owners and others at the apex knew what was happening.

Sinha said those under a scanner for defaulting on repayment of investor money had met Shah, underlining the point that the latter was in the know of things. NSEL said on Thursday that Shah had met the defaulters with other board members and the Forward Markets Commission people FMC after the crisis broke out to find a solution.

“...whatever allegations he (Sinha) has made on Jignesh Shah and other board members, he has never said that he informed them about non-existence of stock in warehouses. Instead, he has blamed his own team for the absence of stock in affidavit one,” NSEL stated.

Adding: “In any case, risk management is one of the fundamental functions of the CEO of an exchange and he was responsible for all operations and activities of NSEL. Anjani Sinha was the only wholetime director and other director members, including Jignesh Shah, were non-executive directors.”