₹5,600-crore fraud: Red corner notice against NSEL ex-director

A RED CORNER NOTICE IS ISSUED AGAINST AN ACCUSED WHO IS NOT IN INDIA, REQUESTING OTHER COUNTRIES TO LOCATE AND DEPORT OR EXTRADITE HIM

MUMBAI: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police recently processed a red corner notice against the former director of the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), Hariharan Vaidyalingam, for his role in the ₹5,600crore fraud.

A red corner notice is issued against an accused who is not in India, requesting other countries to locate and deport/extradite him. It is issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country or an international tribunal, based on a valid national arrest warrant.

“Vaidyalingam was involved in the day-to-day functioning of the company and is one of the key accused in the case. His role in the scam was established based on a forensic audit report. The hunt for him has intensified after that,” said an EOW official privy to the investigation.

Investigators suspect he may be aware of the alleged secret communication related to cheating 12,735 investors. A senior IPS officer said, “Vaidyalingam was earlier in Singapore. Our sources told us he has shifted base to the US recently.”

In the NSEL case, EOW has so far filed four charge sheets against 36 companies and 27 individuals, including NSEL’S then MD and CEO Anjani Sinha and Financial Technologies founder Jignesh Shah. Recently, another accused, Joseph Massey, was arrested in the case. A special Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors (MPID) court on Thursday, remanded Massey in police custody for one more day. Last year, SEBI barred Vaidyalingam, who was also the former director of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), from the securities market for seven years, for his alleged involved in insider trading in the shares of the exchange.