CBI seeks time to file reply to PIL in Rs 5,500 cr NSEL scam

The CBI today sought one week's time from the Bombay High Court to give its response to a PIL seeking transfer of probe from Mumbai Police to the investigative agency into the alleged Rs 5,500 crore scam involving the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).
A bench headed by Justice P V Hardas also allowed NSEL to intervene in the matter while asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its reply within a week.
The court had earlier allowed NSEL to be a respondent to the PIL. However, the petitioner, Ketan Tirodkar objected to this saying it is not necessary to make the exchange a respondent to the PIL which was seeking transfer of probe.

NSEL then filed an application seeking to intervene in the matter. The scam-hit exchange pleaded that the court should hear them before giving its order on the PIL, following which the bench today allowed NSEL's plea to intervene.
NSEL said it has been making bonafide efforts to recover the money from defaulting members ever since it learnt about the wrong-doings committed on its exchange.
The exchange said it has also been holding talks with 25 defaulting members to recover money from them. One such member, Mohan Group, had agreed to pay Rs 771 crore out of the total Rs 991 crore payable by them, NSEL said.

NSEL submitted that besides Economic Offences wing of Mumbai Police, several other agencies such as Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax were also conducting probe.

The PIL argued that since the scam has national and international ramifications, only CBI has the necessary jurisdiction to probe this matter.
He said the NSEL case pertains to alleged financial embezzlements by Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) and Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL)--both promoted by Jignesh Shah.
The petition alleged that those arrested so far like Nilesh Patel, a major borrower, and three employees of NSEL, including Anjani Sinha, were mere pawns in the game while concerted efforts were made to project Shah, the alleged mastermind in the fraud as a "victim".

"This attempt to project the mastermind of the scam as a victim of conspiracy by his employees and borrowers is an outcome of the pressure of vested interests in the corridors of power who have been benefited by the NSEL-MCX-FTIL triangular operations," according to the PIL.