Bombay High Court puts off Jignesh Shah bail hearing till Aug 5

The high court here has deferred the hearing of a bail plea by Jignesh Shah, chairman of Financial Technologies, till August 5 by which time the economic offences wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police is expected to file a chargesheet against Shah.

Justice Abhay Thipsay, who heard the case on Thursday, said he would pronounce the judgment after the charge sheet was given in the court by August 5. After arresting an accused, a chargesheet should be filed within 90 days; in Shah’s case, the 90-day period will be completed on August 5.

The judge said if filed on August 5, the bail plea would be discussed on the merit of the chargesheet. Else, the judge will pronounce the judgment accordingly. In other words, if a chargesheet is not filed within 90 days, the arrested person gets the bail.

Shah was arrested on May 7 by the EOW in connection with the Rs 5,574-crore National Spot Exchange Limited scam. Earlier, a sessions court had rejected Shah’s bail plea on the ground that he could tamper with the evidence.

The EOW has to file a charge sheet within 90 days of the arrest. This will be the second charge sheet filed by the investigating agency in the NSEL scam.  

The first charge sheet was filed in January by the EOW in the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors court, in which it had named former NSEL managing director and CEO Anjani Sinha, former head of finance Amit Mukherjee, former chief of warehouse operations Jay Bahukhandi, N K Proteins’ managing director Nilesh Patel, and Lotus Refineries’ chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Sharma. N K Proteins is the largest borrower of NSEL, while Lotus Refineries is one of the defaulting borrowers.

The names of Shah, former MCX Stock Exchange managing director Joseph Massey, and former Multi Commodity Exchange managing director Shreekant Javalgekar were mentioned, but not as accused.