NSEL : Complaint made skeleton roll out of scam cupboard

According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) sources, NSEL is a commodities exchange. Commodities are supposed to be backed by physical goods in warehouses. But this was not being done in this case and bogus warehouse receipts were being issued. Trading was only being done on paper.

In September 2013, EOW had received a complaint from Pankaj Saraf, who formed the NSEL investors' forum, alleging that the company was duping its investors. The FIR stated that the accused hatched a criminal conspiracy to defraud the investors and induced them to trade on the platform of NSEL by creating forged documents like bogus warehouse receipts.

During investigation, the EOW unearthed a scam of Rs5,600 crore. Till date, 24 accused have been arrested which include Jignesh Shah, promoter of Financial Technologies India Limited (FTIL) and the three brokers. In January 2014, the EOW had filed a charge sheet in the case. The accused were charge-sheeted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and also under certain provisions of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act.