Close on the heels of the Enforcement Directorate interrogation, six investors have filed separate cases against five top brokers for mis-selling and wooing them to invest in agriculture commodities in the now defunct National Spot Exchange.
Recovery suits have been filed in the Bombay High Court against Anand Rathi, India Infoline Commodities, Motilal Oswal Commodities and Phillip Commodities, said sources.
Earlier this week, the Enforcement Directorate had quizzed top officials of these broking firms to ascertain their role in the ₹5,600-crore settlement scam which broke out in July 2013. Among the broking firms which had high exposure in NSEL were: Anand Rathi (₹629 crore), India Infoline Commodities (₹326 crore), Motilal Oswal Commodities (₹263 crore), Phillip Commodities (₹140 crore) and JM Financial (₹90 crore).
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Jignesh Shah, the promoter of Financial Technologies which owns NSEL, late last month and he was released on bail this month.
The capital and commodity markets regulator SEBI has also launched a probe into alleged mis-selling of products by some brokers with the promise of assured returns from commodities traded on the NSEL.
SEBI is looking into various complaints against brokers, including false assurances, inducements and misrepresentation, trading without appropriate authority from clients, misuse or unauthorised modification of unique client code, funding by NBFCs related to the brokers and non-receipt of payouts by clients.