The PIL, filed by Kirit Somaiya, president of the Investors Grievances Forum and former BJP MP, sought the High Court to order a probe by CBI or any other agency into the alleged refusal to pay dues to 17,000 small investors by NSEL resulting in a scam to the tune of over Rs 5,600 crore.
However, today when the matter came up before a division bench headed by Justice S J Vazifdar, the respondents sought more time to file their affidavits.
Irked with this, the court said that it was a serious issue affecting several persons and directed the affidavits to be filed by October 21. The court said this was the last chance granted to the respondents and no further time would be granted.
About the scam, the PIL said that NSEL's role was to bring farmers and buyers together by eliminating middlemen. It alleged that NSEL had forged/manipulated documents regarding stock and liquidity and allowed fraudulent companies to pledge the same stock with more than one financial institution.
The PIL also urged the court to direct Ministries of Finance and Consumer Affairs, Forward Market Commission, Central Vigilance Commission and EOW of Mumbai Police to take action against NSEL and its promoters for allegedly cheating investors.
The EOW recently lodged FIR in the case and arrested NSEL's vice chairman Amit Mukherjee.