This story is from July 9, 2015

EOW struggles for forensic auditors in the NSEL case

The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police, which is probing the Rs 5,600 crore cheating case involving the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), has for the third time written to the Home department demanding the appointment of forensic auditors for this case.
EOW struggles for forensic auditors in the NSEL case
MUMBAI: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police, which is probing the Rs 5,600 crore cheating case involving the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), has for the third time written to the home department demanding the appointment of forensic auditors for this case.
“The forensic auditors are must for this case. We have done our investigation, filed charge sheet and arrested around 14 prime accused including Jignesh Shah, chairman of the Financial Technologies (FTIL) group.
Since our probe it still on and we are studying the money trail and how the money was siphoned off. Forensic auditors’ basic job will be connecting link to the money trail and finding the flow of money from one place to another in the case,” said a senior police officer. Shah was arrested last year along with MCX CEO Sreekanth Javalgekar for their alleged role in the biggest payment default in the Indian commodity market.
The EOW has secured properties, belonging to the accused, estimated worth over Rs 5,400 crore. Of this, properties worth Rs 3,400 crore have been gazzetted for disposal and collection of money to distribute among the investors. Dhananjay Kamalakar, joint commissioner of police (EOW), said, “We are pursuing for expeditious disposal of attached properties to provide relief to the victims.”
Shah and Javalgekar are also accused of using their clients’ bank accounts without their knowledge. Sinha said that the probe was still open about the role of brokers and auditors. In December 2013, the EOW had attached properties, frozen shares and sealed a bungalow and a row house belonging to Shah. They were collectively valued at Rs 192 crore. Police had seized 1.2 lakh shares of Shah that were in FTIL. The estimated value of these shares was around Rs 179 crore. Besides this, police also sealed Shah’s Juhu bungalow, a row house at Aarey Colony (worth Rs 78 lakh), a plot in Pune worth Rs 1.6 crore, shares worth Rs 51 lakh in India Energy Exchange, and FDs worth Rs 11.8 crore in a private bank. Five demat accounts were also frozen. Shah earned Rs 160 crore by way of dividend from FTIL, police said.
Though the state has appointed a deputy collector as competent authority in this case for disbursing the attached properties, the EOW wants a special dedicated competent authority for the NSEL case. A request letter to the Home department has been sent.
Exchange crisis
July 31, 2013: Jignesh Shah-led NSEL suspends trading after govt nudge on faulty contracts Who was to pay Rs 5,600cr: 21 commodity suppliers/planters Who was to get it: 13,000 investors, mostly HNIs Accounts frozen till date: 322 bank accounts holding Rs 171 crore Attachment: Attached over 210 properties worth Rs 2,600 crore Seizures: 15 high-end cars worth Rs 5.8 crore.
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About the Author
Mateen Hafeez

Mateen Hafeez, special correspondent at The Times of India in Mumbai, reports on terrorism, underworld, cybercrime and organized crime syndicates. He also writes about the jails in Maharashtra and focuses on human interest stories. He has covered the Ghatkopar bomb blast, Vile Parle bomb blast, Mulund train blast, train serial blasts in 2006, 26/11 terror attacks and Pune's German Bakery bomb blast. He has a special interest in Urdu fiction written by Ibn-e-Safi.

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