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After fighting a losing battle for over a year, the investors of National Spot Exchange (NSEL) are now seeking the intervention of the capital market regulator SEBI to crack down on 253 brokers who lured Rs 5,600 crore investor money into the scam-ridden exchange.
Satish Bhangar, who invested Rs 6 crore in NSEL, said these brokers will fall in line if SEBI cracks the whip as all of them operate in equity market and are registered with SEBI.
"But it is unfortunate that I could not get an appointment with SEBI Chairman UK Sinha even after writing 13 e-mails. For all the wonderful investor friendly norms SEBI prescribes, it is surprising that the SEBI chief not deputing an officer to hear investor grievance," said Bhangar who is the Managing Director of Magna Industries and Exports, a stock exchange listed entity.
"As a last resort I am planning to file a plea under Right to Information Act," he said.
Agrees Arunesh Madan, an NSEL investor from Bangalore. "We had invested money through our brokers. So it is the responsibility of brokers to get our money back. We are fighting the battle," he said.
Prominent brokers such as Motilal Oswal and Anand Rathi who were supporting NSEL Investors Forum initially withdrew their support after some investors filed cases against them.
Sarad Saraf, Chairman of the Forum said the members of the Forum and few individual investors have spent Rs 5 crore to recover money from defaulters.
"We need at least another Rs 10-12 crore to keep the fight going," he said.
Interestingly a few large investors are not willing to contribute money for the recovery expense as they have receive only a small amount from the Rs 350 crore that was distributed on a pro-rata basis and they expect this trend to continue.
The Forum is banking on central government's support to recover money from defaulters and instill investors’ confidence in commodity market. Turnover on commodity exchanges is already down 60 per cent compared to last year and if the trend continues the day for closure of exchanges is not far, said Saraf.
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