Court extends police custody of 3 brokerage officials

A Maharashtra Protection of Investors' Deposit court extended the police custody of three broekerage officials arrested in the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) payments default case.

Amit Rathi's police custody was extended till Saturday. Those of C P Krishnan, director of Geofin Comtrade (formally Geojit Comtrade) and Chintan Modi, director of India Infoline, were extended till March 13. The city police's economic offences wing (EOW) wanted time to establish active participation of the accused in the Rs 5,600-crore scam.

All three were arrested on Tuesday on charges of forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy and misappropriation.

The applicants' advocate, Amit Desai, argued Amit Rathi was non-executive director of Anand Rathi Commodities and should not have been arrested. The public prosecutor representing EOW argued otherwise, saying at the time membership of NSEL was granted by the broking firm, Rathi was a director. The brokers' counsel also argued that at the time they'd told investors there was enough in the settlement guarantee fund.
 

The public prosecutor also argued that the accused made active representation, offering 14 per cent fixed returns for investing in NSEL paired contracts, with printed brochures on this. EOW's lawyer also argued that brokerages were guilty of circular trades and short selling on NSEL. It was also argued that the brokers were not cooperating in the interrogation. The spokespersons of the broking houses have denied all these charges.