MUMBAI: The city police's economic offences wing (EOW), which is probing the Rs 5,600-crore National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam, on Monday arrested Arun Kumar Sharma for defaulting on the repayment of Rs 159 crore he had borrowed earlier. Sharma is the producer of the recently released Bollywood movie "Satya 2" and also a director of Lotus Refineries, one of the biggest borrowers from the spot exchange.
Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime), said, "We have arrested Sharma for his involvement in the NSEL case. We have found some fake receipts with him." Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of EOW, said, "He was called for questioning and later we arrested him once his role was established in the case. He had borrowed Rs 159 crore from NSEL, which is outstanding. His books of accounts suggest that they splurged the money on real estate, decorating their office, etc."
Sharma invested money to produce "Satya 2" and "Dehradun Diary". He invested up to Rs 15 crore in "Satya 2". Talking about Sharma's role, Sinha added, "The intention was to splurge money in non-productive areas and not to return the money."
Sharma claimed NSEL was using his account for trading. However, the police said they found it was Sharma's login and password that was used in the trading by him. He will be produced before the Esplanade court on Tuesday.
Wearing a gold chain and jacket, Sharma was taken to an EOW office in the police head quarters where the cops asked him to remove the gold chain and jacket before they started recording his statement, again.
The media wing of Sharma's firm is known as Lotus Allied Mediamatics and he had joined hands with Ashwagandha Entertainment and Swami Samartha Creations in 2013 for the marketing and distribution of "Dehradun Diary".
Sinha said Sharma purchased an office in Worli for Rs 38 crore. He is said to have spent Rs 1 crore on furniture and Rs 10 lakh on furnishing it. "He created books of accounts showing all payments were made in advance for the goods he would receive. However, he could not produce the relevant papers to show the transactions and the deals," added Sinha.
Sharma's company is one of the biggest borrowers in the NSEL scam with an outstanding aggregating to about Rs 252 crore when the scam broke. Interestingly, soon after NSEL had declared Lotus Refineries a defaulter, on September 30 Sharma had moved Bombay high court with a counter claim of Rs 2,773 crore from NSEL. In its suit, Lotus Refineries had alleged the NSEL officials had fudged bank statements relating to funds transfer through the RTGS mode, aggregating to Rs 1,704 crore.
During the day, EOW also froze the immovable properties of three ex-employees of NSEL - Anjani Kumar Sinha, Amit Mukherjee and Jai Bahukhandi. The properties included several flats in and around Mumbai owned by the three accused, all of whom are in jail now. "No third-party rights can be created on these properties," Rajvardhan Sinha told reporters.
The day also witnessed Joseph Massey and Shrikant Javalgekar, both top officials in the Financial Technologies (FTIL) group, being questioned by the police about their roles in the NSEL scam. The top police official said that Massey was questioned about how his signatures appeared on the minutes of some of NSEL board meetings even though he was not present in the city on those days.
Massey is a director at NSEL while Javalgekar is a former director who resigned from the bourse's board after the scam was exposed.
Rajvardhan Sinha also said that several teams from EOW have gone to various warehouses of the NSEL to take stock of the products in those store houses. "By Saturday, we will be able to get a clear idea about the stocks in those warehouses. There are about 18-20 warehouses," he said. People from SGS, a Switzerland-based firm involved in auditing the warehouses, are helping the cops, he said.
Courtesy:
Partha Sinha & Mateen Hafeez, TNN | Nov 12, 2013, 03.43AM IST
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/NSEL-scam-Cops-arrest-producer-of-Satya-2/articleshow/25609009.cms
Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime), said, "We have arrested Sharma for his involvement in the NSEL case. We have found some fake receipts with him." Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of EOW, said, "He was called for questioning and later we arrested him once his role was established in the case. He had borrowed Rs 159 crore from NSEL, which is outstanding. His books of accounts suggest that they splurged the money on real estate, decorating their office, etc."
Sharma invested money to produce "Satya 2" and "Dehradun Diary". He invested up to Rs 15 crore in "Satya 2". Talking about Sharma's role, Sinha added, "The intention was to splurge money in non-productive areas and not to return the money."
Sharma claimed NSEL was using his account for trading. However, the police said they found it was Sharma's login and password that was used in the trading by him. He will be produced before the Esplanade court on Tuesday.
Wearing a gold chain and jacket, Sharma was taken to an EOW office in the police head quarters where the cops asked him to remove the gold chain and jacket before they started recording his statement, again.
The media wing of Sharma's firm is known as Lotus Allied Mediamatics and he had joined hands with Ashwagandha Entertainment and Swami Samartha Creations in 2013 for the marketing and distribution of "Dehradun Diary".
Sinha said Sharma purchased an office in Worli for Rs 38 crore. He is said to have spent Rs 1 crore on furniture and Rs 10 lakh on furnishing it. "He created books of accounts showing all payments were made in advance for the goods he would receive. However, he could not produce the relevant papers to show the transactions and the deals," added Sinha.
Sharma's company is one of the biggest borrowers in the NSEL scam with an outstanding aggregating to about Rs 252 crore when the scam broke. Interestingly, soon after NSEL had declared Lotus Refineries a defaulter, on September 30 Sharma had moved Bombay high court with a counter claim of Rs 2,773 crore from NSEL. In its suit, Lotus Refineries had alleged the NSEL officials had fudged bank statements relating to funds transfer through the RTGS mode, aggregating to Rs 1,704 crore.
During the day, EOW also froze the immovable properties of three ex-employees of NSEL - Anjani Kumar Sinha, Amit Mukherjee and Jai Bahukhandi. The properties included several flats in and around Mumbai owned by the three accused, all of whom are in jail now. "No third-party rights can be created on these properties," Rajvardhan Sinha told reporters.
The day also witnessed Joseph Massey and Shrikant Javalgekar, both top officials in the Financial Technologies (FTIL) group, being questioned by the police about their roles in the NSEL scam. The top police official said that Massey was questioned about how his signatures appeared on the minutes of some of NSEL board meetings even though he was not present in the city on those days.
Massey is a director at NSEL while Javalgekar is a former director who resigned from the bourse's board after the scam was exposed.
Rajvardhan Sinha also said that several teams from EOW have gone to various warehouses of the NSEL to take stock of the products in those store houses. "By Saturday, we will be able to get a clear idea about the stocks in those warehouses. There are about 18-20 warehouses," he said. People from SGS, a Switzerland-based firm involved in auditing the warehouses, are helping the cops, he said.
Courtesy:
Partha Sinha & Mateen Hafeez, TNN | Nov 12, 2013, 03.43AM IST
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/NSEL-scam-Cops-arrest-producer-of-Satya-2/articleshow/25609009.cms
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