MUMBAI, July 19 -- An 85-year-old man accused of selling 5,000 unlisted National Stock Exchange (NSE) shares mistakenly credited to his demat account has been granted anticipatory bail by a Mumbai sessions court, which held that custodial interrogation was unnecessary as the case rests largely on documentary evidence and is already the subject of a civil dispute before the Delhi High Court. Additional sessions judge V.B. Bohra passed the order in favour of Kashmiri Lal Rana on Friday in a case registered by the BKC police. The FIR alleges that Rana dishonestly sold the shares despite knowing they had been mistakenly credited to his account. The prosecution opposed bail, claiming his two sons live in the US, raising the possibility of him absconding. It also argued that recovery of the case property was still pending which the accused might dispose of. In his defense, Rana contended that there was a seven-month delay in the registration of the FIR, blamed the error on NSE officials, and said the chargesheet had already been filed. The court noted that the FIR itself described the transfer of the 5,000 shares as an inadvertent mistake. It also recorded Rana's claim that he believed the shares were credited as bonus shares and sold them after obtaining the NSE's permission. The judge further noted the parallel civil proceedings, observing that NSE had already "instituted the civil suit against the applicant/accused before the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi" seeking, recovery and other reliefs, and that he had contested the suit. Holding that custodial interrogation was unnecessary, the judge observed that the evidence was primarily documentary. The case stems from an alleged mistaken transfer of unlisted NSE shares to Rana's demat account in 2023. Before the error was detected, a substantial number of the shares were sold, prompting NSE to initiate proceedings....