Case against Bhave closed; CBI recommends departmental action

New Delhi: The CBI has decided to close a the case against former SEBI chairman C B Bhave and another ex-member in connection with grant of sanction to MCX-SX to function as a full-fledged private stock exchange but recommended "departmental action" against him. This follows the agency coming to a conclusion that Bhave's role in granting permission to the private exchange was not of serious nature to warrant registering a case, highly-placed sources said.

Hence the recommendation for a departmental action against Bhave, a 1975 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, who took voluntary retirement from service in 1996. The sources said that the CBI has finalised the case in which similar action is being recommended to the Finance Ministry against former SEBI member K M Abraham.

Besides this, the CBI has decided to file a regular case against Jignesh Shah and some unknown officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for alleged concealing of facts and conspiring to cheat the investors. Shah is already under the scanner of EOW and other probe agencies like ED since last year when National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), part of the Financial Technologies (India) Limited group founded by him, faced a payment crisis as nearly 18,000 of its investors allegedly lost millions of rupees.

The size of the scam has been pegged at Rs 5,600 crore. Bhave, a 1975 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, was not available for comments. He became SEBI Chairman in February 2008 and his three- year term ended in February 2011. Abraham's term as a whole- time member of SEBI also ended in 2011. MCX-SX was set up by FTIL and its commodity exchange arm MCX and began functioning as a full-fledged stock exchange last year after a prolonged battle with SEBI.