ED rejects Motilal Oswal plea in NSEL case; issues fresh summons

Motilal Oswal had requested the probe agency to allow him to be represented by one of his company's directors

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued another summon to Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, rejecting his request to be represented by one of the directors of the company.

The move came after enforcement sleuths asked him to appear before it on August 8. “There is no exemption granted for the individual,” an ED official told Business Standard.  “We are examining the broker’s role in the entire scam and need to cross-verify the evidences,” he added. When contacted, a Motilal Oswal Fin services spokesperson said: “Since it’s a regulatory matter, we can’t comment on the same.”

The ED has summoned nine brokers for questioning in connection with the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) money-laundering case. This is the first time that heads of brokerages such as Motilal Oswal Financial Services, India Infoline Commodities, Geofin Comtrade and Phillip Commodities are being called for questioning. “We are looking at certain clues on unauthorised changes made on the NSEL servers. The names of clients on the NSEL servers were found to be different from those on brokers’ records,” said the official cited above.

Two year ago, three executives of leading brokerage firms Anand Rathi Financial Services, Geojit Comtrade and India Infoline were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police, and were later released on bail.

“The ED registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2013 to probe the case. So far, it has made an attachment of Rs 800 crore in the case. A supplementary charge-sheet could be expected,” added the ED official.

The NSEL crisis had led to a payment default of Rs 5,600 crore in July 2013, involving 23 borrowers.