The CBI has examined SEBI Chairman UK Sinha in connection with a preliminary enquiry into the granting of a licence to the Jignesh Shah-founded Financial Technologies (India) group to set up MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX).
The decision to quiz Sinha, as also former SEBI Chairman M Damodaran, was taken after the examination of another former SEBI chief, CB Bhave, earlier this month. Bhave told the agency that public interest was involved in the grant of a licence to MCX-SX to trade in currency derivatives.
MCX-SX was set up by Financial Technologies and its commodity exchange arm MCX as a currency derivatives exchange and began functioning as a full-fledged stock exchange last year after a prolonged battle with SEBI.
The approval for it to become a full-fledged stock exchange came during the tenure of Sinha, who took charge in February 2011. He got an extension of two years in February this year.