EOW asked to submit NSEL board meeting minutes

MMTC said Jignesh Shah, MD & CE, Financial Techno-logies (promoter of NSEL) and other directors were aware of the fraud

While hearing the MMTC-National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) case on Tuesday, the high court here asked the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police to file the minutes of all NSEL board meetings held since the inception of the exchange.

MMTC had filed the case against NSEL to recover dues of Rs 228 crore.

On Tuesday, MMTC counsel told the court former NSEL managing director Anjani Sinha had been made a scapegoat in the case. MMTC said Jignesh Shah, managing director and chief executive of Financial Technologies (promoter of NSEL) and other directors were aware of the fraud.

The EOW had inspected the books of NSEL, as well as the minutes of the board meetings, and found many directors had signed board minutes without attending those. This, the police had ascertained by tracking the mobile phones of the directors. It said the circles in which the phones were present were different from those where the meetings were held.

Meanwhile, former Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) director Joseph Massey on Tuesday went to the Forward Markets Commission office to cross-examine accounting firm Grant Thornton, which carried out the forensic audit of NSEL. Earlier, FMC had issued a show-cause notice to Financial Technologies, Jignesh Shah, Joseph Massey and others, challenging their ‘fit and proper’ status for running MCX, as they were on the board of the crisis-hit NSEL. Financial Technologies had raised several questions against the forensic study report, which the accounting firm had replied to. As the cross-examination is now over, FMC will take a decision on the ‘fit and proper’ status of Shah, Massey, etc.