Mumbai: Observing that he was neither the decision-making authority nor was there any money trail connected to him, a special court recently ordered the release of a Pune-based flat belonging to a non-executive independent director of NSEL.This property was attached a decade ago by the state govt in connection with the multi-crore National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) scam.The court found that the property was acquired years before the alleged fraud commenced and that the competent authority failed to establish any “money trail” linking the flat to the illicit funds from NSEL.During the proceedings, the applicant, B D Pawar (73), produced certified copies of his sale deed from 2003 and an agreement from 2006 to prove his ownership predated the scam. “The attached property of B D Pawar has nothing to do with the tainted money of NSEL fraud,” the judge said. Pawar served as a non-executive independent director of NSEL from May 15, 2007 to Aug 7, 2013. The judge found that he held no decision-making authority, and critically, there is no evidence of any financial link between him and NSEL’s operations.“Admittedly, the position is that the property was purchased in the year 2006. The NSEL fraud started in the year 2008, and the fair contracts, which are illegal, started in the year 2009. The attached property of B D Pawar has nothing to do with the tainted money of NSEL fraud. Other than this, the competent authority did not establish the shortfall after considering the properties of Financial Establishments of NSEL and 25 defaulters,” the judge said.The judge further stated that to attach and make absolute the private and personal properties of a director, member, partner, promoter, or manager of the Financial Establishments, the competent authority has to first establish the shortfall after exhausting their properties. “The NSEL and 25 defaulters are declared as Financial Establishments by the state govt… and this is upheld by the Supreme Court. The competent authority has not pleaded and not even made any evidence to establish what is the value of the property of the Financial Establishments, i.e., NSEL, and what is the shortfall requiring attachment of the private and personal property of B D Pawar,” the judge said. Pawar submitted that through an agreement dated Jan 31, 2006, he, along with seven others, including his wife, had entered into a Developers Agreement with a developer.