Borivali resident loses shares worth ₹16.20 crore to frauds

MHB Colony police registered an FIR against fraudsters who transferred 54,000 bonus shares worth ₹16.20 crore to a bogus demat account in Borivali.

MUMBAI: The MHB Colony police in Borivali registered an FIR against a fraud, employees of an asset management company and an online stock trading platform for allegedly transferring 54,000 bonus shares worth ₹16.20 crore to a bogus demat account which was held by Borivali resident Sudha Gandhi in Balkrishna Industries Limited.

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The police said the accused opened a demat account in Sudha’s name and held the shares in physical form and then sold the same and received the sale proceeds.

According to the MHB Colony police, the case is likely to be transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) as the amount involved is high. The police said Vanita and Sudha held 54,000 shares of Balkrishna Industries Limited since 1962. The address given for their demat account was of Borivali and the family was dividend regularly and share certificates had also been delivered at their address.

“In 2017, Balkrishna Industries Limited declared a bonus share – one as to one. Thus, Sudha and Vanita were entitled to 54,000 bonus shares and their total holding had gone up to 1,08,000 shares. Vanita had given the work of bringing the shares to an online platform and removing Sudha’s name from the joint holding and updating the KYC for the account to a consultant, as she is a senior citizen,” said a police officer.

However, later they learnt that somebody had opened a fake demat account in Sudha Gandhi’s name in Vadodara, Gujarat on a stock trading platform and sold the 54,000 bonus shares of Balkrishna Industries Limited and was also in the process of getting the share certificates for the original 54,000 shares and getting them credited it in the bogus demat account.

“Apart from the fraud, we have also booked the employees of the online stock trading platform, as without their connivance it was not possible for the accused to get the shares credited to the fake account opened through their platform and en-cash the shares,” said a police officer.

“They have taken advantage of the fact that the shares were still not in online form. The value of the shares was around ₹16.20 crore. We have booked the accused for 409 criminal breaches of trust, 34, common intention, 419 personation, 467 forgery of valuable security, 468 forgery and 471 using as genuine a forged document of the IPC,” said the police officer.