HC allows investors to make submissions on Shah's bail plea

The Bombay High Court today allowed a group of investors to make written submissions on the charge sheet filed against MCX promoter Jignesh Shah in the Rs 5,000 crore National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) scam.
Hearing Shah's bail petition, Justice Abhay Thipsay asked the investors, who had intervened during the proceedings, to file their response by August 8.
The matter has been adjourned till August 11.
Counsel for the investors, Sandeep Karnik, said the 9000-page charge sheet filed by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police against Shah has shed light on new evidence and they wanted to make submissions in respect of those.

Police had on August 4 filed a supplementary charge sheet against Shah, founder of Financial Technologies and promoter of the now-defunct NSEL. EOW had also given a copy of the charge sheet to Justice Abhay Thipsay.
The HC had earlier heard arguments on the bail plea from both sides but deferred the order till the charge sheet was filed to know what material has been placed against Shah.

Shah has challenged the order of the lower court which on June 24 rejected his plea on the ground that investigation in the scam was still on and he could tamper with evidence or hamper the probe if released.

Advocates Mahesh Jethmalani and Aniket Nikam, representing Shah, argued that he had played no role in the alleged scam. They contended Shah's employees may have been involved in the payment crisis at the commodity spot bourse and he personally had no knowledge of what was happening at NSEL.
A group of investors, who have lost money in the scam, has approached the court opposing Shah's bail plea, alleging he had knowledge of the scam that came to light in July 2013.
As per Shah's lawyers, after his arrest, he cooperated with the investigating agency by providing relevant documents and disclosing all information he had. Hence, there was no question of his tampering with evidence.

Shah has argued that as a non-executive director at NSEL he was not involved in its day-to-day operations.
NSEL is part of Financial Technologies (India) Ltd Group founded by Shah. FTIL holds 99.99 per cent stake in NSEL which has maintained that payment crisis occurred due to complicity between certain erstwhile officials of the exchange and defaulting members.