Asked for his comments on CBI Director Ranjit Sinha's reported remarks that the agency has only registered a PE, Bhave retorted, “They are saying there are no raids or arrests yet. Should we wait to get raided and arrested?”
Bhave, who served as SEBI Chairman for three years till mid-February 2011, said that “CBI chose to ignore the fact that the I-T department found no merit in its prob against Shah. Yet, CBI chose to file a criminal PE against me”.
On CBI's assertion that Shah was given undue benefits by grant of licence, Bhave said, “it's a completely crazy logic that CBI has”, because the licence did not lead into any profits and it was rather granted to create competition.
Bhave has been credited with several path-breaking orders and decisions taken by the capital markets regulator and the CBI move against him has already evoked sharp reactions from many former bureaucrats including ex-CAG Vinod Rai, as also by Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.
CBI registered a PE against Bhave, SEBI's former whole-time member K M Abraham, as also against Shah-led FTIL and MCX, last week in a case related to grant of licence to MCX Stock Exchange in 2008.
MCX-SX, which was set up by FTIL and MCX, was initially given a licence to operate in a limited segment of currency derivatives in 2008, but SEBI refused it permission to act as a full-fledged bourse for years as it was not found to be in compliance with existing regulations for the same.
