Is Jignesh Shah above the law?
Like a chameleon Jignesh Shah the fallen czar of Indian financial kingdom is changing his strategy from directly influencing the witnesses and sidetracking investigations to managing the media to get a favorable judgment in the FTIL-NSEL case.
There was a time when Jignesh Shah was trying to engage a battery of top lawyers to sa
ve himself –it’s a different story that the money being spent by him belonged to the helpless investors opposing him in court.
A new twist in Jignesh Shah who has many ex-bureaucrats working for him in a number if his companies involves seeking the help of pen pushing babus in different ministries to play hide and seek with the files. This behind the curtain game is helping Jignesh Shah to shoot and scoot without being caught.
Pritam Singh a joint secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairsthe is indirectly helping Jignesh Shah by remaining absent from office on one pretext or another in the last three months.
Singh along with Chaturvedi the Secretary, Ministry of Law held a personal hearing of both sides on 12-14 October
The final order was to be issued by 31 October as per the direction of the court. Three days before that the ministry moved the application to Mumbai High Court, asking for an extension of two months because of the voluminous data submitted by FTIL and NSEL on 21st October. Hence they needed more time to study the documents.
On 6th November Pritam Singh went on medical leave for having a bypass surgery.
“If he knew in advance that he needed a bypass so soon, he should not have taken the personal hearing, somebody else should have taken the personal hearing. Isn’t it strange that he needed a bypass 3 weeks after the personal hearing?” asked an irate investor.
Meanwhile, Pritam Singh who was supposed to join back on 30th November did not do so and instead extended his leave on 31st December.
On 22 December the Ministry again moved the Mumbai High Court – just a day before the courts were to close for winter vacation, stating that Pritam Singh who was to sign this document was on medical leave. Hence they needed her two more months.
Allegedly Pritam Singh has again extended his leave from 31st December to 31st ‘Jan and is likely to join sometime in Feb. This leads to the following questions:
- Does it take 3-5 months to recover from a bypass surgery?
- If his condition was so critical then why did he take the personal hearing?
Chances are that Pritam Singh may join the office around the 8th or 10th of Feb and then the ministry might say we are not in a position to issue the final order or issue a weak order stating that Pritam Singh did not get enough time to go through the voluminous submission made by FTIL, NSE and others.
The NSEL investors are suspecting a big foul play in this.
