New Delhi: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police on Monday filed a 9,360-page supplementary charge sheet against Jignesh Shah (44), chairman of Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL), in connection with the Rs. 5,600-crore scam at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).
There are around 270 witnesses that the prosecution has listed against Shah in the chargesheet, said Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of police, EOW. More charge sheets are likely to be filed as investigations progress, he added.
Shah, who was also a director at NSEL, was arrested on May 7 by the the EOW. A sessions court rejected his bail application on June 24 and he has now moved the high court. His judicial custody is scheduled to end on August 5 and the chargesheet has been filed by the EOW to try and deny him bail.
EOW officials said so far they have attached immovable property worth Rs. 4,902.18 crore and seized cash worth Rs. 356.88 crore.
Investigations have revealed that Shah had approved all entries of NSEL's members as well as various contracts. He had also attempted to represent before the government that NSEL's scheme was nothing but a platform for running a non-banking financial company, officials said.
Earlier on January 6, the EOW had filed a 9,800-page charge sheet in the NSEL fraud case before the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) court.
The EOW had registered a case against FTIL, board of directors of NSEL including Shah and 25 borrowing companies for criminal breach of trust, forgery and conspiracy. The EOW has already frozen 80 accounts related to the accused in the case. Apart from the various sections of the Indian Penal code, the EOW has also invoked sections of the MPID Act.
Shah came under the scanner of the EOW and other agencies last year when NSEL faced a payments crisis and nearly 18,000 of its investors allegedly lost millions of rupees. His defence has been that he was the non-executive director of NSEL and was not involved in day-to-day operations.
