The Maharashtra government has set up a dedicated court under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act to fast-track hearing in the National Spot Exchange case which involves a settlement scam of ₹5,600 crore.
The first hearing of the special court will be held on July 19.
Arun Dalmia, Secretary, NSEL Investors Forum, told
“The setting up of a special court to hear the NSEL scam is a welcome relief. The Central and State governments want this case to reach its logical conclusion fast and recover the money from four defaulters,” he added.
Incidentally, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday arrested Jignesh Shah, the promoter of Financial Technologies which owns NSEL and secured his custody till July 18. While seeking Shah’s custody in a fresh case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the central agency said the defaulting companies had remitted ₹114 crore to the now defunct NSEL and two of its subsidiaries.
Last month, the Centre directed Maharashtra government to speed up the auctioning of ₹6,116 crore of assets attached so far and refund investors their money.
While the scam is being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police, the Enforcement Directorate, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Financial Intelligence Unit – India and Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the progress is being monitored by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
The exchange abruptly stopped trading in July 2013 on the direction of the Forward Markets Commission, former regulator of commodities market. The exchange was not able to settle the contracts as investors with sell positions did not have enough collateral.