Now, NSEL brokers face police heat

After Financial Technologies India Ltd chairman Jignesh Shah, the brokers of National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) could face heat from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police. After Shah's arrest, EOW Additional Commissioner of Police, Rajvardhan Sinha, said broking houses charged 0.2 per cent as warehousing charges, but never gave investors any warehousing receipts.

These and many other actions of brokers have been investigated.

EOW also suspects broking houses made wholesale purchases for entire days in the morning; this truncated and segregated the amount into the client accounts.

Around 200 brokers are said to be involved in the scam; they have been summoned for questioning. Major brokerages questioned by the EoW so far include Anand Rathi, Motilal Oswal, India Infoline and Geojit Comtrade.

Rajvardhan Sinha said brokers had changed client codes, which was an offence. The police said the properties of the involved in the scam would be frozen.

Separately, EOW officials said a few bullion operators had acted as facilitators in the NSEL scam.