PremiumThe Central Bureau of Investigation clarified to him it was not investigating him after Venkat Chary said he had proactively offered to appear before it if it needed to 'clear any doubts'
Venkat R. Chary, former chairman of the erstwhile Forward Markets Commission (FMC) and former non-executive chairman of the Jignesh Shah-promoted Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), was not investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the fraud at National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), also promoted by Shah.
On 20 March 2014, Mint carried a report citing unnamed people that said Chary’s role was being examined by the federal investigating agency. At the time, Chary clarified that he had no knowledge of any investigation, that he had “received no communication from CBI that it was examining his role" and that he had nothing to do with the fraud at NSEL.
Subsequently, CBI clarified to him that it was not investigating him after Chary said he had proactively offered to appear before the agency if it needed to “clear any doubts".
Chary was non-executive chairman of MCX from September 2003 to August 2013, when he resigned from its board as FMC guidelines required directors over the age of 70 to retire.
He served as chairman of FMC, the commodities futures market regulator, from 1984 till 1987. Last year, FMC merged with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.
In October 2013, Chary was appointed as an independent, non-executive director of Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, or FTIL.
He was also non-executive chairman of Indian Energy Exchange Ltd, another entity set up by Shah, the chairman of FTIL, which has been renamed 63 Moons Technologies Ltd.
FTIL owns 99.99% of NSEL, on which trading was suspended after a ₹ 5,574-crore fraud, first thought to be a payments crisis, came to light in July 2013.
