In a letter dated July 15, 1999, the administrator of the Magadh Stock Exchange Association (MESA), S S Dhanoa, has urged Bihar chief secretary S N Biswas to hand over the ongoing investigation to the CBI as ``the fraud prevalent in MESA is of an all India nature''.

The letter states, ``We, in MESA, have come to the realisation that there is an involvement of people at the all-India level in league and connivance with local brokers, sub-brokers, authorised agents, assistants, postal and railways authorities. We suspect that the volume and extent of fabricated and tainted shares introduced in the local market have their root not in Bihar, but outside the state.''

MESA's reputation has been battered as baddelivery scrips worth over Rs 3 crore was detected a couple of years ago. Sources in the exchange say the racket, of which only some strands are apparent now, could run into over Rs 20 crore. According to MESA, the introduction of tainted, stolen, fabricated and duplicate shares have totally paralysed the activities of the bourse.

Unable to resolve the crises, MESA had lodged three FIRs in a local police station against (1) Ashoka Financial Consultants (2) PD Agrawal & Others (3) PJ Bahadur & Others.

According to sources, as the police in Bihar was ill-equipped to deal with such mega economic offences, the cases gathered dust. Frustrated with the tardy approach of the Bihar police, administrator S S Dhanoa, a former chief secretary of the Punjab government, met the DIG of the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 14, 1999. The meeting was preceded by a letter from MESA to the CBI (dated June 17, 1999) requesting the latter to take over the case for investigation.

On its part, CBI has requested MESA toapproach the state government as they were unable to takeover the cases on their own, as per the rules. Dhanoa, in his letter to the chief secretary of Bihar, has said, ``It is suspected that some all-India gang is involved in the racket. The nature of offense is such that the local police is unable to grasp the whole thing.''