In the first arrest in the NSEL's Rs 5,600 crore payout scam, Mumbai police today held a top official of the beleaguered bourse whose payment crisis deepened with MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) founder Jignesh Shah quitting its board.
Amit Mukherjee, vice-president at National Spot Exchange Limited's(NSEL) business development department, was called for questioning by Mumbai Police's Economic Offence Wing and subsequently placed under arrest for his role in the scam, Additional Police Commissioner (EOW) Rajvardhan Sinha said.
Shah's Financial Technologies-promoted NSEL defaulted on its payment for the eighth time in a row yesterday,
The first arrest came a day after the investigators "briefly" recorded the statement of Shah, Chairman and Managing Director of Financial Technologies(FT) along with other directors Joseph Massey, Shreekant Javalgekar and Dewang Neralla.
Besides Shah, MCX-SX's Managing Director Joseph Massey also resigned from the exchange's board in high profile exits, deepening payment crisis at the Group company NSEL.
The surprise move late this evening came shortly before the market regulator Sebi-ordered extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the country's only privately-promoted stock exchange here.
"Jignesh Shah resigned as Vice-Chairman and shareholder-director of the exchange with immediate effect," MCX-SX said in a release here.
Massey has also resigned as Managing Director and Chief Executive of MCX-SX, and as shareholder-director with immediate effect, it said.
Following this, Thomas Mathew, a former Acting Chairman of LIC, has taken over the affairs of the exchange for the interim period as public interest director, it said.
Yesterday, Sebi had nominated Mathew as public interest director of MCX-SX.
The market regulator had asked the exchange to hold an EGM in a month's time, when it issued renewal licence to the exchange last month. Accordingly, EGM was held today but Shah and Massey resigned before the meeting, sources said.
"As an interim arrangement, U Venkataraman, Whole- Time director, will assist a special committee of public interest directors to carry out functions of the exchange," the release said.
According to police, Shah had allegedly put the blame squarely on Mukherjee and former bourse MD & CEO Anjani Sinha for the fraud. Anjani was yet to show up before the investigators.
Mukherjee had introduced new members, investors, clients and companies to NSEL, including those firms that defaulted in making payments, an EOW officer claimed.
