ED summons Nirmal Jain in NSEL money laundering case

Probe agency asked him to be present on Aug 29

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to Nirmal Jain, the chairman and managing director of India Infoline Finance (IIFL) group, for questioning in connection with the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) money-laundering case.

He was asked to be present before the agency on August 29, a senior ED officer told Business Standard. “We are examining the broker’s role in the entire scam and asked them to furnish the details of funding of clients through non-banking financial companies and their unexplained write-offs,” said the official.

In an email query, an India Infoline Commodities spokesperson said: “There is no such summons till now. This is incorrect information and pure speculation.” This is the first time that the heads of brokerages such as Motilal Oswal Financial Services, India Infoline Commodities, Geofin Comtrade and Phillip Commodities are being called to record statements in the case. So far, nine brokers have been summoned by the ED.

The probe agency is looking at certain clues for 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 years ago, three executives of leading brokerage firms Anand Rathi Financial Services, Geojit Comtrade and India Infoline were arrested by the economic offences wing of 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 chargesheet 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.