MH-NSEL-ARREST

Mumbai Police have arrested former

chief financial officer of NSEL Shashidhar Kotian in

connection with the Rs 5,600-crore now-shuttered commodities

spot exchange scam, a senior Economic Offences Wing (EOW)

official has said.

Kotian was produced before a court Friday, which

remanded him to police custody till January 28, the official

said. The agency sought his remand on the ground that they

have come across from fresh facts and need to confront with

the same.

The NSEL scam refers to the payment crisis driven by

the physical absence of the commodities against the invested

money. As many as 13,000 investors have claimed losses after

the trading platform faced a payment crisis, forcing the

government to order its shuttering.

The crisis broke out on July 31, 2013 when the

exchanged failed to honour it commitments to its investors

since then the regulator banned promotor Jignesh Shah from

running and managing almost half-a dozen exchanges he had set

up in country and outside, after finding him not "fit and

proper" to do so.

However, his company 63 Moons Technologies (which was

earlier known as Financial Technologies), where he is chairman

emeritus, owned 99.99 per cent in NSEL. He owns around 45 per

cent in 63 Moons.

On December 27, 2018, the Mumbai police filed charge

sheets against 63 entities-- 27 individuals and 36 companies.

Companies named as accused in the chargesheet include

NSEL, 63 Moons Technologies, India Bullion Market Association;

commodities brokerages like Anand Rathi Commodities, Geofin

Comtrade and India Infoline Commodities among others.

Several other companies who also defaulted on paying

back investors have also been named as accused in the

chargesheet which lists cheating, criminal conspiracy under

IPC and several sections of the Maharashtra Protection of

Investors and Depositors Act and includes a statement of 520

witnesses and details of 509 bank accounts.

Earlier in 2014, the police had filed a chargesheet

against six individuals and subsequently against NSEL founder

Jignesh Shah who was arrested on May 7, 2014 and is now out

on bail.