Bring all our cases under one body, NSEL to tell SC

Seeks appointment of an authority to hear all NSEL related cases under one roof

National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) is set to approach the Supreme Court and urge it to bring all cases related to it under a designated authority to hasten trials.

“A number of cases have been filed by investors, borrowers, NSEL and others, in various courts. These cases are under various stages of hearing. Therefore, we have decided to approach the Supreme Court soon and urge it to appoint an authority under the apex court’s supervision and hasten hearings,” said Saji Cherian, managing director and chief executive of NSEL.

Various cases have been filed against NSEL, its promoter Financial Technologies and ex-officials of the two companies with regard to the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis at the exchange, which involved about 13,000 investors across the country. Currently, trails are underway in the Bombay High Court and Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors court.

Various authorities, including the Economic Offences Wing of the city police, have met ex-officials of NSEL to record their statements. The Central Bureau Investigations is also involved in the case.

At a meeting on Thursday, a Forward Market Commission-appointed monitoring action committee put pressure on NSEL borrowers to hasten the recovery of funds from them. NSEL is considering approaching regional court in the borrowers’ vicinities to issue warrants against the defaulters.

“Our primary objective is to recover money from borrowers and distribute these among investors as soon as possible,” Cherian said.

Since the scam came into light in July 2013, NSEL has been able to recover only six per cent, or Rs 354.11 crore, from borrowers. Of the borrowers, only two — Topworth Steel (dues of Rs 188 crore) and Sankhya Investments (Rs 7.74 crore) — have settled their accounts.

As of May 31, Rs 5,335.81 crore of dues were unpaid by 22 borrowers; eight groups account for 93 per cent of the total dues.

NSEL will also start an advertising campaign across leading national media to bring to the public the dues, addresses and photographs of borrowers and co-borrowers.