Bhave blasts CBI for 'crazy' MCX- SX chase

Former chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) C. B. Bhave on Wednesday demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should publicly apologise to him if it does not find anything against him in the preliminary enquiry ( PE) initiated into the issuing of the licence to Jignesh Shahpromoted MCX- SX in 2008.

In an interview to news agency PTI, Bhave lamented that it is very easy to say something against someone and make humiliating allegations and malign their reputation. "But if the CBI has not found anything against me, then I want them to publicly apologise to me," an indignant Bhave said.

Asked for his comments on CBI director Ranjit Sinha's reported remarks that the agency has only registered a PE, Bhave retorted, " They are saying there are no raids or arrests yet. Should we wait to get raided and arrested?" The CBI director must look into all the evidence and take such serous decisions, he added.

Bhave, who was SEBI chief from 2008 till 2011, said that the CBI can pick and choose its cases as it has done in various matters related to Shah. " Just last year, Sebi permitted Shah to continue to run the exchanges under Sebi regulations when there was a show- cause notice issued to him for declaring him ' not fit and proper' by the

FMC (Forward Markets Commission) after it found that a Rs 5,000- crore loss was inflicted on investors," he pointed out.

"Despite the knowledge of this serious investigation, Sebi under (current chairman) U. K. Sinha allowed Shah's exchanges to run.

This is all out in the public domain. Does it mean that the CBI should open a preliminary enquiry against Sinha?" The CBI has alleged that Bhave and former Sebi member K. M. Abraham permitted Shah's Financial Technologies Group to set up an exchange despite the Group having been raided by the Income Tax ( I- T) Department. However, Bhave pointed out that the original letter from the finance ministry regarding the I- T investigation came during the tenure of his predecessor M. Damodaran.

Courtesy: Mail Today