‘Dabba trading’ racket: Sixth accused arrested from Gujarat

Dabba or box trading refers to an illegal practice of trading that takes place outside the purview of the stock exchanges. Simply put, it is gambling centred around stock price movements and the person who places a bet earns the difference if the share price goes up, or loses if the price falls

Mumbai: One more person was arrested in connection with the “dabba trading” racket which was busted last month in Kandivali, taking the number of arrested accused to six. Bhupen Babubhai Kheni, 50, who was arrested on Tuesday from Surat in Gujarat, allegedly provided a mobile application to run the betting racket and took 3% of the profits from the operations, police officials said.

On June 20, the crime branch unit in Kandivali received a tip-off about an illegal trading operation being run from an office in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali West. The police, along with representatives of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India, raided the place and found that the prime accused, Jatin Mehta, 45, did not have any licence or permission to trade in shares. (HT PHOTO)

Dabba or box trading refers to an illegal practice of trading that takes place outside the purview of the stock exchanges. Simply put, it is gambling centred around stock price movements and the person who places a bet earns the difference if the share price goes up, or loses if the price falls.

On June 20, the crime branch unit in Kandivali received a tip-off about an illegal trading operation being run from an office in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali West. The police, along with representatives of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India, raided the place and found that the prime accused, Jatin Mehta, 45, did not have any licence or permission to trade in shares.

Mehta, a share broker, was arrested for illegally running the “dabba trading” racket. During the investigation, police found that transactions worth around ₹4,672 crore were allegedly made from the office which caused a revenue loss of ₹1.95 crore to the government.

During their raid, the crime branch had seized ₹50,000 in cash and five mobile phones along with a laptop, tab and other electronic equipment from Mehta’s office, said the police official.

After questioning Mehta, the police arrested three more accused, Vijay Gada, 28, Vijay Rathod, 57 and Hiten Makwana, 45, on June 28. According to the police, the trio were working as coordinators between customers, who were placing bets on share prices and Mehta, the mastermind behind the racket.

Last week, the police arrested the fifth accused, Dhiman Gandhi, after Mehta revealed his name, as the person who had provided him the mobile phone application for running the betting racket. According to the police, during Gandhi’s questioning, he revealed the name of Kheni as the person who had initially provided the application.

“Now, we are searching for another accused who in turn sold the application to Kheni, who used to get 3% of the profits which Gandhi and Mehta made,” a crime branch officer said. “Gada is a resident of Kandivali, while Makwana is from Borivali and Rathod is from Dahisar. They all are middlemen who coordinated between the customers and Mehta.”