The police has sought details on the telephone conversations between the alleged mastermind of the estimated Rs 300 crore Citibank fraud, Shivraj Puri, and brokerage firms Religare and Bonanza.
Details of the conversations between the main accused in the fraud and the brokerage firms will help unravel the trail of the ill-gotten funds and also tie up loose ends with respect to the police investigation, sources said.
As a matter of routine, brokerage firms record conversations between their staff and clients. The telephone records are stored by the firms to avert any litigation with regard to orders.
The police has already sought details from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on transactions executed by Religare and Bonanza at the behest of Puri.
The telephone conversations, sources said, would also help the police ascertain whether the transactions were carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Reserve Bank and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Meanwhile, the local police has also sought the services of a chartered accountancy firm to inspect the transaction details and find out whether market norms were followed by the accused persons.
Although the police has already obtained guidelines from the RBI and other regulators, sources said expert assistance was needed to find out the nature of transactions and the extent of the violations.
When contacted, Religare said the firm "is fully cooperating with all authorities and agencies... Information of the matter was reported several months back... (to authorities) in compliance of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) requirements".
Puri, who used to lure high-net worth individuals into schemes based on the promise of abnormally high returns, had opened his account with Religare Securities (RSL) in December, 2009. However, trading ceased in his account after the balance fell to 30 paise on October 15, 2010.
The police, however, have not been able to recover the iPad used by Puri to transact business with his clients.
The police had yesterday sought to extend Puri's stay in custody till it could recover the communication device, as it might contain information vital to establishing the money trail.
Puri had invested the bulk of the funds in Nifty options -- which are derivative products with the NSE benchmark index Nifty as the underlying asset -- where the investor has no obligation to take delivery and needs to pay only margin money.
In the derivatives segment, investors bet on the upward or downward movement of the Nifty and the returns depend on the accuracy of such bets.
