Jignesh Shah, the founder and non-executive vice chairman of MCX, resigned on Thursday from the board of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), India's largest commodity bourse.

Just hours after resigning, Shah was ensconced with his core team with which he had built his financial sector group. He was, however, unwilling to talk this evening.

"I need a couple of days," Shah told The Indian Express. At the apex of his financial group was the holding company Financial Technologies (India) Limited (FTIL), of which he is the founder chairman. The group has 39 companies, including NSEL.

But as the spot exchange imploded from August this year, each one of his companies felt the impact.

Shah said the crisis has "destroyed everything I have worked hard to build over the past two decades". At risk are also the currency market platforms of the group in India and abroad at Dubai and Singapore among other places.

Thursday was the last day for Shah to reply to the show-cause notice issued by the regulator Forward Markets Commission on his "fit and proper" status to manage the exchange.

On the show-cause notice a top-level source in the government said, "The writing on the wall is clear. The notice clearly says what is going to happen."

He meant that if the reply was unsatisfactory, Shah and Financial Technologies will have to reduce their stake in MCX from 26 per cent to below 2 per cent. The CEO of the exchange Anjani Sinha and three other officer have already been arrested by the economic offences wing of the Mumbai police. But Shah has claimed the forensic audit on NSEL has not reported any adverse findings on FTIL. So, only when the charges against NSEL are made can any proceedings on the 'fit and proper' criteria be made against him or FTIL.

"A detailed reply has been filed addressing all the concerns raised in the regulator's show-cause notice," Shah said in a statement released to the media.

FMC issued notices to Shah, FTIL, Joseph Massey and Shreekant Javalgekar following the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis at NSEL after it was forced to halt trading in commodities from July 31 on a government directive.

Ex-CEO Anjani Sinha sent to jail

Mumbai: A city sessions court has remanded former CEO of the NSEL Anjani Sinha to judicial custody in connection with the ongoing payment scam at the company. The court also extended police custody of NK Proteins Limited Managing Director Nilesh Patel till November 4. PTI