Harshad Mehta's brother held in cheating case after 15 years

 


The criminal investigation department (CID), Pune, on Saturday arrested Sudhir Metha, brother of the late share broker Harshad Mehta, for allegedly duping city-based financial firms to the tune of Rs 86.39 lakh in shares investments in 1997. Mehta was untraceable for 15 years.


Acting on a tip-off, the CID team, led by deputy superintendent of police Vijak Tikole, arrested Mehta near a five star hotel in the city on Saturday evening. He was produced before the court on Sunday. He has been remanded to police custody till April 18.


The complaint in the case, about alleged cheating and forgery, had been registered with the Faraskhana police station by Pune Stock Exchange member and director of a finance company Gopal Rathi on July 29, 1997.


The CID had taken over the investigations from the Faraskhana police and had filed the chargesheet in 2004. The CID on November 14, 2011, had arrested Arvindbhai Manibhai Amin (69) and Laljibhai Manjibhai Patel (63), both residents of Ahmedabad, after their anticipatory bail pleas were rejected by the district and sessions court here.


Other suspects in the case, Bharat Somchand Khona, Prafulla Kantilal Rokadiya, both of Mumbai, Shashikant K Gandhi, Rajan Jayankumar Mehta of Thane, are currently out on bail. Pune based share broke broker Mangal Kewalchand Jain and Amit Naginbhai Shaha of Ahmedabad in Gujrat are still untraceable.


Investigating officer Tikole said in 1994, Mehta had taken over a private company from another suspect Amit Shah, who was working as managing director of that company. "Mehta and Shah on March 10, 1994 had brought issue of 75 lakh equity shares into the market and earned Rs 750 lakh," Tikole said, adding, "Out of 75 shares, the suspects had printed one lakh shares as fake and gave them to investors."


Tikole said in April 1995, suspect Bharat Khona had given shares of the companies to local share broker Jain who mortgaged them to city-based financial institutions and had taken huge amount from them. Jain gave the money to Khona, who in turn invested them in the share market.


Tikole said Jain had mortgaged 15,000 shares with the complainant Rathi's financial institution in Pune. After Jain became untraceable, Rathi sent the shares to the company to get them transferred on his name. "When he came to know the shares were fake and were of zero value, he had lodged the complaint with the Faraskhana police station against the suspects for duping him to the tune of Rs 1.95 lakh," Tikole said.


Tikole said the Sudhir Mehta, who is the brother of late share broker Harshad Mehta, was the mastermind in the case. He was untraceable since 1997. "We got a tip-off that Sudhir Mehta would be coming to a five star hotel in Pune. We laid a trap and arrested him," Tikole said.


Assistant public prosecutor R D Parmaj, who sough 14 days police custody for Mehta, said that the CID is yet to arrest another suspect Amit Shah in this case. "The CID wants to trace the other suspects involved in the case with the help of Mehta and also to recover the complainant's cash of Rs 1.95 lakh and the fake shares," Parmaj said.


The defence counsel Suchit Mundada told the court that the CID has already completed the investigations in the case. They also had filed the chargesheet. "The accused had been granted transit bail in the case by the court in 2004. The accused does not have any fake shares with him. Therefore, for recovering the bogus shares, his police custody is not needed," Mundada said.