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The National Spot Exchange (NSEL) payments scams would be one of the few in which the assets seized are almost equal to the dues owed to the investors. Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of the city police's economic offences wing (EOW) can be given the credit for this.
On the night of July 31 a year before, NSEL announced suspension of its business and on the next day, 13,000 investors realised they'd lost money. On August 20, NSEL defaulted on its first instalment of repayment. Investors and the NSEL board of directors complained to EOW about the fraud. The exchange said some of its employees, including the managing director (MD), were responsible. Sinha and his team took two months before they arrested Anjani Sinha, the MD, followed by a series of arrests. That of Jignesh Shah, promoter of Financial Technologies, which owned NSEL, was the latest one.
Sinha can boast of attaching enough assets to repay, including even brands owned by one of the NSEL borrowers. It is unusual for police to take such a step but Sinha has. He has two difficult challenges to meet - preparing a final chargesheet for the trial and proving the role of the brokers in the scam - NSEL investors say these were their first level of contact, they were responsible for mis-selling and for trading on their behalf without their knowledge.
Those he'd appointed for forensic audits of brokers have completed their job. His next focus will be on the action against the brokers. NSEL continues to provide updates on its defaulters and their businesses. His team will be working hard to complete the job.
