MCX probe: CBI files case against former MD Jignesh Shah
According to sources searches were carried out at the office of Mr Shah and others in nine locations in Mumbai, Gwalior and Shimla.
New Delhi: The CBI on Friday registered a case against former MCX MD Jignesh Shah, four former chairpersons of the Forward market commission and others for allegedly facilitating nation-wide exchange status for MCX in 2003.
According to sources searches were carried out at the office of Mr Shah and others in nine locations in Mumbai, Gwalior and Shimla.
It is alleged that the accused had facilitated Multi Commodity of India Ltd (MCX) in getting nation-wide multi-commodity exchange status even though it did not fulfil the stipulated criteria.
Besides Mr Shah, the CBI has also booked four former chairmen of the Forward Market Commission (erstwhile government body now part of SEBI).
The other former chairman Bishnu Khatua, Keval Ram, Anand Kumar Bhat and Rajeev Kumar Agarwal, who had held the post previously, sources said.
The then deputy MD of MCX Joseph Massey, the then deputy director, Market Commission, Vishal Nair, has also been named in the FIR, they said.
It is alleged that the FMC allowed MCX ingetting status of multi commodity exchange for which the permission was given in 2003 even though it did not fulfil the criteria they said.
“Jignesh Shah and the FTIL illegally retained shares beyond permissible limit of 26 per cent, deriving wrongful gain of '137 crores by selling 26 lakh excess shares at the rate of '1032 per shares,” sources said.
Refuting the allegations, 63 Moons (erstwhile FTIL) issued a statement and said, "The search by the CBI on Friday was in connection with the matter of permission granted to the MCX in 2003. We find this surprising because the permission was granted 15 years ago when the country did not have a pan-India commodity exchange." According to the statement the permission to set up nation-wide commodity exchange was not only granted to the MCX but was also granted to three other entities. "Thereafter, 63 Moons (then known as FTIL) took MCX to the level of being the Number 1 commodity exchange in India and Number 3 in the world," said the erstwhile FTIL.