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In a major breakthrough, investigative agencies have established a trail of transactions in the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) payment crisis, where a part of the money invested by investors has gone back to a private firm controlled by NSEL vice-chairman and promoter Jignesh Shah.
La Fin, a company owned by Shah and his wife, received the payment a few months ago from Kalpesh Shah, an employee of NSEL.
Kalpesh Shah, who was at the time working as assistant vice-president, business development, had in turn received the sum from Mohan India, the Delhi-based client of NSEL, which has dues of Rs 600 crore. Kalpesh Shah had introduced Mohan India to NSEL along with Amit Mukherjee, according to a confession statement by Jai Bahakhundi, another NSEL employee in charge of the warehouses.
The revelation puts Jignesh Shah, who has over the past couple of weeks sought to distance himself from the payment crisis and the subsequent revelations of large-scale irregularities at the exchange, in a spot. Anjani Sinha, the sacked chief of the exchange, has also tried to bolster Shah’s arguments by filing affidavits and making statements taking responsibility for the debacle.
In response to an email query, La Fin did not deny receiving the payment from Kalpesh Shah but said it was a repayment of a loan given to Kalpesh Shah.
“A loan to Kalpesh Shah was given when he was in dire need of money prior to his employment in the FTIL Group. It was given against his insurance policies and flat as collaterals. At that time, he was not an employee in the FT Group,” the company said in a statement.
After Jignesh Shah gave him the loan, he had also given him a job in NSEL. Kalpesh Shah had not been making payments for a while but made the last and final payment recently.
The statement said, “Since 2009 he has been repaying the same in installments along with interest and he paid the last installment of Rs 80 lakh from Mohan. La Fin was not aware of the source of funds while he was returning his loan. Hence, it cannot be construed that money was routed from borrowers of NSEL to La Fin. La Fin does not give any loan to any FT group employee. This loan was given prior to the employment of Mr Kalpesh Shah, purely on humanitarian grounds. Kalpesh Shah joined NSEL in August 2012.”
NSEL has also taken “disciplinary action” against Kalpesh Shah for taking money from a client of the exchange. “In light of recent developments, disciplinary action has already been taken earlier this month and he has been suspended from his role.”
