Court extends police custody of Jignesh Shah

The sessions court on Thursday extended the police custody of the Financial Technologies and Multi Commodities Exchange (MCX) promoter Jignesh Shah and former managing director and chief executive of the commodity exchange Shreekant Javalgekar till May 19.

Both were arrested on May 7 in the Rs 5,600-crore payment scam at the National Spot Exchange Limited, a bourse promoted by Shah's group.

The Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai police told the court today that Shah knew about several aspects of the conspiracy. The agency also said that NSEL was a guarantor for the trading on its platform and had assured traders that if they lost money, they would be reimbursed.

Defence lawyers sought to put the blame on another accused and former NSEL CEO Anjani Sinha, saying that he was in charge of day-to-day affairs while Shah was a non-executive director. But the judge D P Surana granted the agency's plea for further custody.

Shah came under the scanner of EOW and other agencies last year when NSEL faced a payment crisis and nearly 18,000 investors allegedly lost millions of rupees.

Besides being the founder chairman and group chief executive of Financial Technologies Group, Shah is also the founder of MCX, the world's eighth largest commodity futures exchange. A first-generation entrepreneur, he founded FTIL Group in 1999.