Suspect in National Spot Exchange scam scripts a daring escape

MUMBAI: A four-member police team went to arrest Joseph Massey, former director of the National Spot Exchange (NSEL), from his Andheri flat on Sunday. They had to wait for 20 minutes before the door of his flat opened. When they went in, Massey was nowhere to be found. Not because he wasn’t there to begin with. But because he had fled through a secret corridor.
“We discovered a bookshelf with a secret door behind books. When the door opened, it revealed a connecting route to another flat in the adjacent wing of the society. We found a chor raasta, which Massey used as an escape route. We learnt later that the other flat too is in the possession of the Massey family,” a senior officer told TOI. On Tuesday, Massey’s anticipatory bail application was heard by a special court, which adjourned the hearing till Wednesday.
The Massey brothers, Joseph and Gilbert, own three flats in Trans Residency, a 10-year-old building in Subhash Nagar, MIDC, Andheri (east). Two, 701 and 702, are on the top floor of C wing while one, 705, is in B wing.
The society’s secretary said she wasn’t aware that two Massey flats were interconnected. “I got to know from the watchman. The family did not seek the society’s permission for the changes. But maybe the previous committee knew,” she said.
Nobody answered the door at Joseph Massey’s flat when TOI visited on Tuesday evening. Gilbert is a doctor who practices in Poonam Nagar near Jogeshwari (east). Residents said he is a devout person who organizes prayer meetings at home every Thursday.
The EOW, probing the Rs 5,600-crore NSEL cheating case, has found evidence against Joseph Massey (57). “We entered the building from the main gate and went to his flat as we had information about his presence there,” said an officer. A policeman noticed that Massey’s wife was sitting near a bookshelf, containing more than 50 books. While interacting with the police, she did not move from the spot at all. This made the police suspicions and they began searching the bookshelf, whereupon they found the secret door.