Delhi broker booked for cheating, criminal breach in Rs 5600-crore NSEL Scam

MUMBAI: Big brokers on the NSEL, three of whom the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai police arrested earlier this month for their alleged role in the Rs 5,600-crore scam on the spot bourse, aren’t the only ones facing the music.

Acting on a complaint by one Ashwin Shah, Economic Offences Wing of Delhi police has filed a first information report (FIR) against Delhi-based Integrated Commodity Trades and its four directors for alleged cheating as well as criminal breach of trust, among others. ET has reviewed the copy of the first information report.

The FIR states, among others, that the broker failed to collect warehouse receipts from the bourse and did not verify whether goods existed in the exchange warehouses, which is at the heart of the scam.

Shah, a senior citizen, also alleges that though nervous and wanting to back out when the government directed NSEL not to launch new contracts around mid-July 2013, days before the scam surfaced, he invested .`43.67 lakh between July 12 and August 13 after being “repeatedly induced” by the directors that the trades were “absolutely legal.”

However, Subash Khaneja, one of the directors named in the FIR, said the complainant was aware the fraud had been perpetrated by NSEL and not by brokers.

“We traded on NSEL only on behalf of clients and not on our own account. We did not modify client codes or offer any advisory services,” Khaneja said.