NSEL a victim of employee fraud, says MCX ex-honcho Chary

Former senior Venkat R Chary, who was the non-executive chairman of the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) for a decade until August 2013, said in a newspaper interview on Friday that he would personally ask the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) why his name has been dragged into the controversy over the payment crisis at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).

Chary (74), now an independent director at Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL), further told Business Standard in the interview that some government officials played an important role in favouring organisations with which MCX competes.

''I have had no connection whatsoever with NSEL, which I believe fell prey to fraud by employees. The police and the courts are looking into the matter and the law will take its course. However, I must say there are certain vested interests that have been consistently defeated in market competition by MCX, IEX, etc. They are out to destroy young entrepreneurs. That is a sad thing,'' he said.

Asked on what grounds he based these allegations, Chary said ''I don't make casual statements,'' and gave some specifics – stopping short, however, of naming the officials or ministers concerned.

''I wrote a letter of complaint to the Central Vigilance Commission for necessary action. They replied that my complaint had been registered and that I could check its progress on their website. But the website did not show any information at all. So I don't even know if that complaint was actually registered.

''I also wrote to CBI's anti-corruption bureau, the Prime Minister's Office, the finance ministry, the department of personnel and other related organisations, including the consumer affairs ministry, which was regulating MCX then. But all of this was to no avail.''