63 moons technologies limited has approached the Bombay High Court seeking a direction to the CBI to expedite its inquiry into a complaint filed by the company against former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and two others alleging abuse of official powers.
The Jignesh Shah-promoted company, earlier known as Financial Technologies Ltd., in its petition filed on July 4 questioned ‘delayed’ action by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the senior Congress leader and bureaucrats K.P. Krishnan and Ramesh Abhishek.
Mr. Abhishek was chairman of the Forward Markets Commission and Mr. Krishnan was an Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance when Mr. Chidambaram was Finance Minister.
On February 15, 2019, 63 moons filed a complaint with the CBI, seeking that a case be registered against the three for ‘abusing’ their official positions and causing damage to the company when the multi-crore payment default scam at National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) came to light.
On June 20, 2019, the company filed a petition in the High Court, seeking a direction to the CBI to register an FIR.
In August 2019, the CBI informed the Court that after verification of the complaint, an inquiry will be initiated.
The petition said that in March 2020 it sent a letter to the CBI seeking to know the status of inquiry. The latter informed that its complaint has been forwarded to the Chief Vigilance Officer for approval by the competent authority.
“Four months have lapsed since then and there has been no further communication from the CBI. The CBI has failed to register an FIR,” the petition said.
The company has accused Mr. Chidambaram and the other two of taking “malicious and malafide” action against it when the NSEL scam came to light in 2012-2013.
On July 10, a Division Bench of the High Court posted the petition for hearing to July 17.
