Kolkata: Leading Mumbai stockbroker and allegedly the chief conspirator in the Rs 120 crore scam at Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) in March 2001, Ketan Parekh, was on April 19 granted bail by the chief metropolitan magistrate.

After spending over 90 days in custody, Parekh was granted bail by chief metropolitan magistrate S C Misra as Kolkata police failed to file chargesheet against him during this period.

The bail was granted on two sureties of Rs 12,000 each with a condition that he would have to report to Kolkata police once a week.

The magistrate, however, waived the condition that the broker would have to stay in Kolkata for the next three months as was generally required, Parekh's advocate Y J Dastur said.

With Parekh's release, all the 19 accused, including former president of CSE Dinesh Singhania, who were arrested in the case since investigation commenced in mid- September last, were now out on bail.

As per the charges, Parekh had conspired with Singhania, H C Biyani and Ashok Poddar - all CSE brokers - to dupe the Exchange to the tune of over Rs 150 crore of which about Rs 30 crore was later realised from them, by taking advantage of some technical fault in the Exchange's software.

Deputy commissioner of police (Detective Department) Soumen Mitra had earlier said they would not be able to file chargesheet in the white collar crime. "We (Kolkata police) have, however, showed that one could not get away after having committed any crime."

PTI