NSEL scam: Court grants bail to three brokers

MUMBAI: A special court today granted bail to three brokers arrested in connection with the Rs 5,600 crore National Spot Exchange Ltd ( NSEL) case.

Managing Director of Anand Rathi Commodities Amit Rathi, India InfoLine Commodities Vice-President Chintan Modi and Geojit Comtrade Whole-Time Director C P Krishnan were granted bail by the court. All of them had been arrested earlier this month.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) officials said Rathi had a total client base of 12,900 investors with a trading exposure of Rs 19,130 crore, which was about 16 per cent of the total turnover on NSEL.

InfoLine's total trading volume was Rs 9,183.48 crore, while GeoFin had about 1,000 clients with Rs 5,526.66 crore exposure, it said.

These firms allegedly made false assurances to investors with wrongful and misleading statements, leading to enticement for investments on the NSEL platform, it said.

The investors, it said, were assured that the exchange offered fixed returns on investments and it is a safe place to put in money.