The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police on Wednesday said that it intends to focus on attaching more assets in the Rs 5,600-crore National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam.
?We want to seize maximum assets so that we can give relief to 15,000 innocent investors who have lost their money,? said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime), Mumbai, after meeting some of the NSEL investors.
Earlier on Tuesday, EOW moved to attach properties and shares of promoters and directors of the spot exchange. Among the assets attached were three properties owned by Jignesh Shah, chairman and group CEO of Financial Technologies (FTIL), which is the promoter of NSEL.
In addition, 1.19 lakh shares of FTIL and 5 lakh shares of the Indian Energy Exchange, which were held by Shah, were also attached along with Shah?s fixed deposits worth R11 crore with HDFC Bank and five demat accounts whose value is still being evaluated.
? We have written to the depository participants and communicated to them those shares cannot be dealt with in any way,? said Roy.
The EOW also attached two flats owned by Joseph Massey, former MD & CEO of MCX-SX, along with R98 lakh worth of shares that Massey held in MCX.
In the case of Shrikant Javalgekar, former CEO of MCX, four flats and shares worth R1.2 crore have been attached.
While Roy did not give any timeline on the likelihood of further arrests linked to the scam, he did not rule out the possibility. ?As you know we have carried already out some arrests and in the days to come I am sure you will see more arrests. However, it is a matter of strategy,? Roy added.
So far, the police has detained five people in connection with the scam, including NSEL?s former MD & CEO, Anjani Sinha, and two former vice presidents.
They have also taken into custody Nilesh Patel, MD of NK Proteins, and Arun Kumar Sharma, director of Lotus refineries.
Close to 40 investors, who met with Roy, sought action against NSEL board members including Shah, Massey, Javalgekar and former NSEL chairman and father-in-law of Nilesh Patel, Shankarlal Guru.
Investors demanded that the role of Javalgekar be probed, who they claim was largely responsible for managing the financials of the three FTIL firms, including NSEL.
