MCX founder Jignesh Shah resigns from board

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jignesh Shah, the founder and vice chairman of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) , has resigned from the board of the exchange he built from a startup in 2003 into India's biggest commodities bourse.

He said he wanted to avoid any harm to shareholder and investor interests from the "mud slinging" over allegations concerning the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), which his Financial Technologies (India) Ltd also owns.

The NSEL has been under investigation by police since last month after India's commodities regulator ordered it to suspend trading of futures contracts in July over suspected violations of rules on contract duration.

MCX is 26 percent owned by Financial Technologies, of which Shah is founder, chairman and CEO. The provider of trading platforms and related technology also owns the NSEL.

NSEL has said it followed all existing rules.

"The NSEL crisis has destroyed everything that I have worked hard to build over past two decades. My loss is not just financial but what has hurt me and my family most is the concerted effort to destroy my credibility and trust for which I have lived by all my life," Shah said in a statement.

"I don't want any event or anything to undermine their (MCX's) reputation and want to ensure that the shareholder and investor interests are not harmed by the mud-slinging that has been done towards the entire range of institutions that have been created by the group," he said.

Shah's resignation comes two weeks after MCX CEO Shreekant Javalgekar resigned.

NSEL's former chief executive, Anjani Sinha, was arrested earlier in October and has been in police custody since October 17.

(Reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar and Himank Sharma; Editing by Tony Munroe and Alison Williams)