Brokerage firm employee booked for defrauding customer

Accused siphoned off ₹1.58 crore from the demat account of a customer by changing the associated e-mail id, bank account and mobile number

MUMBAI: An employee of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited has been booked for allegedly siphoning off ₹1.58 crore from the demat account of a customer by changing the associated e-mail id, bank account and mobile number.

(Shutterstock)

The accused, 31-year-old Gaurang Mandalia, had joined Motilal Oswal in May 2021. He was employed in the firm’s operations department and worked on Quarterly Payment Settlement.

The fraud came to light after a senior citizen who had opened a demat account with the firm in 2016 approached them, saying her shares were not visible in her account. While the account was declared dormant in July 2023 owing to lack of activity, the e-mail id, bank account and mobile number associated with the account were modified in August 2024.

The financial services firm subsequently conducted an internal probe, which found that Mandalia had likely filled the modification form by forging the customer’s signature and activated her demat account.

“From August 2024 to January 2025, he transferred shares worth ₹1.58 crore by encashing them to his bank account,” said an officer from Dadar police station, where a first information report (FIR) was registered against Mandalia based on a complaint by the firm’s legal manager.

Mandalia has been booked under sections 318 (4) (cheating), 336 (3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.) and 340 (2) (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.