NSEL scam: Police attach properties of Jignesh Shah, 3 others

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police, investigating the NSEL scam, attached several properties of Jignesh Shah, including his Juhu bungalow on Tuesday. Properties of other directors, including Joseph Massey and Shreekant Jawalgekar and NSEL's former chairman Shankarlal Guru's bungalow, have also been attached by the agency.

An EOW official said that the total book value of the 206 properties attached so far is Rs 2,580 crore and it covers only half of the NSEL's 24 borrowers.

The EOW official further added that if these properties are taken at their market value, as much as 95 per cent of the depositors' dues can be covered. Shah, one of the promoters of Financial Technologies (FTIL), which had promoted NSEL, also owns a house at Array colony in Goregaon which is estimated at Rs 78 lakh and a plot in Pune worth Rs 1.6 crore. These two properties have also been attached by EOW. Besides this, Shah's shares in FTIL worth Rs 178 crore, shares in Indian energy exchange ( Rs 51 lakh), promoted by the FTIL, and fixed deposit worth Rs 11.57 crore have been seized. The police have been acting in the NSEL's case following complaints after the spot exchange defaulted to the tune of Rs 5,574 crore. The police have so far attached 15 vehicles worth Rs 5.82 crore, frozen 322 bank accounts having Rs 171 crore cash and shares and investment worth Rs 229.22 crores.

Meanwhile, NSEL paid around Rs 9 crore against the scheduled payment amount of Rs 174.72 crore defaulting for the 16th straight time. With Tuesday's payout, NSEL has so far settled about Rs 244 crore against Rs 5,600 crore due to 13,000 investors.

Courtesy: Mail Today