NSEL scam: Police files charges against former CEO Anjani Sinha, 4 others

The Mumbai Police, which is probing the fiasco that led to the Rs5,600-crore payment crisis at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), on Monday filed charges against five accused-arrested in connection with the scam, including the spot exchange's former CEO Anjani Sinha.

The other four named in the chargesheet are Amit Mukherjee, former NSEL vice-president (Business Development), Jay Bahukhundi (ex-assistant vice-president), Nilesh Patel (managing director of NK Proteins Ltd) and Arun Sharma (CMD of Lotus Refineries and film financier).

However, the 9,100-page chargesheet does not mention the names of Jignesh Shah, NSEL promoter and director, Joseph Massey and others who played key roles in the payment crisis.

"We have filed a chargesheet against the five arrested accused in the NSEL case at the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act (MPID) court. The probe in the case is not yet over. Some more charge sheets will be seen as the investigation progresses," joint police commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy said.

Roy also clarified that just because some names are missing from the chargesheet one should not assume that they have been given a clean chit. So long as their names are in the FIR, they will be investigated, he said.

"One should not feel that we have given anybody a clean chit just because their names did not appear in the first charge sheet," Roy said.

"Jignesh Shah is also an accused in the case and fully involved in the scam. His name is also there in the FIR," he said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Balsing Rajput (of Economic Offence Wing), meanwhile, clarified that the other accused are making themselves available for questioning by the police as and when required.

"Nobody is untraceable and this is the reason why we did not mention anybody as wanted accused in the first charge sheet we filed today," the DCP said.

The police also clarified that value the over 200 properties of the accused attached so far, including those who were not arrested, and money lying in the 322 frozen bank accounts, is valued at Rs4,500 crore, which is 80 per cent of the scam value.

The voluminous charge sheet included the list of attached properties of all the accused, frozen bank account details, information of physical stock available in the warehouses, statements of 297 witnesses, said Roy.

The chargesheet also details the modus operandi of the scam operators and how the management colluded with the defaulters, manipulation of the books of account and the appointment of dummy directors by certain borrowing companies.