The Mumbai Police on Monday filed a 9,800-page chargesheet against five accused arrested in connection with the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) scam, which involves a payment default of Rs 5,600 crore.

The voluminous chargesheet included the list of attached properties of the arrested and wanted accused, frozen bank account details, information of physical stock available in the warehouses, statements of 297 witnesses, said Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy. The chargesheet, however did not mention the names of the wanted accused.

"The probe in the case is not yet over. Some more charge sheets will follow in the later stage. One should not feel that we have given anybody a clean chit just because their names did not appear in the first charge sheet," Roy said

"Jignesh Shah (Promoter and director of the NSEL) is an accused in the case and fully involved in the scam and his name is also there in the FIR," the IPS officer said responding to a query.

The chargesheet has also thrown a light on the modus operandi of the crime, how management was hand-in-glove with the defaulters, how certain borrowing companies appointed dummy directors, manipulation of books by various companies, Roy added.

The FIR was lodged on September 30 by EOW against directors Jignesh Shah, Joseph Massey and others charging them with cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy, among other offences.

The spot commodity bourse, promoted by Shah-led Financial Technologies (FTIL), has been facing problems in settling Rs 5,600 crore dues of 148 member brokers, representing 13,000 investor clients.

Police suspect equal role of brokers in the scam as many of them have sold NSEL commodities despite having knowledge of the fraudulent practices in the spot exchange.

The EOW has invoked Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act, which empowers police to attach immovable assets of the accused. 

So far, police have attached over 200 properties (of the accused and the defaulters), valued at total of Rs 4,500 crore. Investigators have found Rs 170.97 crore in 322 bank accounts which were frozen during the probe.

EOW has so far arrested five persons in the case - Anjani Sinha, Amit Mukherjee and Jay Bahukhundi of the NSEL, and borrowers Nilesh Patel, managing director of N K Proteins, and Arun Sharma, chairman of Lotus Refineries and also a film financier. All of them are in judicial custody and presently lodged in Arthur Road Jail. (Business Today(