The Bombay High Court today directed the Maharashtra government to release Rs 13 crore from the 'frozen' accounts of the firm '63 Moons', owned by NSEL scam accused Jignesh Shah, to enable it pay salaries and meet day-to-day expenses.
A bench of justices Shantanu Kemkar and M S Karnik said 63 Moons must ensure that the money is used only for these two purposes, and this should be verified by an independent auditor.
The government had issued a directive on April 4 to the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police to freeze operating accounts of the company, as several depositors had lodged complaints of fraud against 63 Moons, owned National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).
Depositors had alleged that NSEL, run by erstwhile FTIL (later renamed as 63 Moons), promoted by Shah, collected money by promising attractive returns, but failed to return the money on maturity.
Last month, 63 Moons moved the high court seeking that the EOW be directed to "de-freeze" its bank accounts, so that it could pay its employees and meet the day-to-day expenses.
The state government opposed the plea, saying the EOW had frozen only four of over 30 operational accounts of the firm.
The CBI has filed a charge-sheet against Shah and then FTIL CEO Anjani Sinha along with 20 others in the alleged NSEL scam, which is related to the commodity bourse defaulting on payments due to its investors.
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