Harshad Mehta: Family, Brother, Wife, Son, Allegations

Harshad Mehta

Harshad Mehta famous as the big Bull of Dalal Street: acquired a lot of possessions with very little or no investments. He was born on July 29, 1954, near Rajkot in Gujarat.

He hailed from a Gujarati Jain family. He is a son of a small textile businessman in Borivali.

He is famous for the 1992 scam of the Indian Securities. In the article, we will know about the details of the Indian stockbroker, who made excellence.

The reason for his popularity is that he never invested a lot of money, Yet, made a lot out of it. The market manipulator, who found loopholes, connected and acquired his share in stock markets. 

There are various views on his scam of 1992. The famous economic times stated that the act of Harshad Mehta was not against any of the laws described in the Indian Penal Code. Rather, he fully exploited the loopholes of the system.

Let’s take a brief study of the famous stockbroker.

Harshad Shantilal Mehta is an opportunist of his time. He came to the land of opportunities, Mumbai, and never thought or had a mind to be such a great businessman.

Living a simple life, he wanted a little more. Life isn’t the same right. Is it? No.

He wanted to do a little more, and one day he got introduced to the stock market. Without too much understanding, he followed the advisor, learned by himself, and emerged from dust to India’s greatest stockbroker. 

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Harshad Mehta Family

Harshad Mehta Brother

Harshad Mehta’s sibling is Aswin Mehta. Despite the stock scenarios of his brother; he took to the law. Today, Ashwin Mehta is a prominent lawyer in the Supreme Court and the Mumbai High Court. 

He is known to have handled many cases and has paid 1,700 crores to erase his alleged brother’s name. Ashwin was a great ally of Harshad and was also one of the investors in his firm. 

Although after the death of Harshad Mehta in 2001, the case against him was subsided, the battle against SBI continued till 2018 by another special court. 

Harshad Mehta’s Son

Harshad Mehta’s son’s name is Artur Mehta, he does not have a presence on social media.

But according to some reports, he is having a 21% acquisition in the BSE-listed, Square Deal Filaments. But there is no concrete information to back this in the BSE or on the Internet. 

Harshad Mehta’s Wife

Jyoti Mehta, fearless like her husband, battled the legal matter until 2008. She is also reported to win a legal battle against Kishore Janani and Federal Bank.

They were alleged to owe Harshad Mehta a lump sum of 6 crores with an interest rate of 18%. Thus, the total amount goes up to 500 crores.

Harshad Mehta Education

Harshad Mehta completed his schooling at Janta Public School in Bhilai. He was a passionate cricket lover. He was an excellent or brilliant kid from school.

After completing his education in Bhilai he came to Mumbai. He completed a B.Com degree at the Lala Lajpatrai College in 1976 and started looking for jobs. He did petty jobs for little money in the following 8 years.

Harshad Mehta Work And Lifestyle

The beginnings of Harshad Mehta were humble and that pushed him to go to Mumbai for some jobs. Initially, he worked as a salesman for cement, hosiery items, and even in shops that assemble and sort diamonds.

His influential sales skills made him progress as a salesman in every firm he was with. Following this upgrade and learning, he got employed at the New India Assurance Company Limited. 

Specifically, his skills in selling items involved the way he talked and manipulated his customers. This brought a lot of income to him and profits to the companies he was a part of.

By this time around, he also learned about stock market investments and the interest made him leave sales and be a part of a brokerage firm. 

To begin with, he got a low-level job at Harjivandas Nermidas Securities. Prasann Pranjivdas, the main broker was his guru and his knowledge and guides launched Harshad Mehta to the stock market. 

Harshad Mehta – Early Years At Stock Market

In the 80s, he shifted between various brokerage firms, learning and developing some skill sets with every firm.

By 1990, he was already a well-known figure in the Indian Securities market in Dalal Street. In fact, Business Today also listed him as the Big-B of the Stock Market. 

Harshad Mehta began trading in 1986 and in the next 4 years, he gained a lot of trust and respect from people under him.

As a result, heavy investments started pouring for him and his services were being used by many people. The majority of his investments were in the Associated Cement Company (ACC)

The prices of the ACC stocks grew from INR 200 to INR 9000 due to the massive set of buying from brokers that also included Harshad Mehta.

Mehta insisted that the ACC stock was undervalued, and it was just the market correcting itself.

To support his theory, he constantly spoke about the Replacement Cost Theory. His fearless investment got him more titles and coverage from the media.

Some called him the Raging Bull and some others, ‘The Big Bull’. Out of these, his appearance in the Business Today Magazine is the most prominent. 

Harshad Mehta Lifestyle

Son of a small textile businessman, he has acquired much. He had a 15,000 square feet penthouse in the Worli area.

His penthouse included a mini-golf course and swimming pool. Indeed a flashy lifestyle.   

He had a collection of cars that were Toyota Corolla, Lexus LS400, and a Toyota Sera. These car collections were rare even in the richest houses of India. 

Harshad Mehta Case

Harshad Mehta was a famous stockbroker, who was convicted of various financial crimes in India. He was the mastermind behind the 1992 Bombay Stock Exchange scam.

He was a leading bull in the stock market. The Mumbai Crash happened when he was arrested by Indian police in a securities scam. The crash happened just a few months after his arrest. 

According to the allegations, he, along with a group of brokers, artificially inflated the prices of stocks listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange by using the funds borrowed from other brokers.

The peak of the scam was 17 March 1992. The Securities Scam, as it came to be known, was regarded as the biggest scam in the history of the Indian stock market.

It was also a significant event in Indian economic history, as it played a role in the downfall of a central government.

Banks were not permitted to trade or invest in shares. Instead, they used to hold only government-issued bonds as their assets. However, banks needed good business profits more than ever before.

As it turned out, Mehta found a loophole by approaching them with an offer that was too difficult to pass upon.

He promised them higher interest rates on those accounts if they stashed some money into his own personal account pretending as if he wanted someone to buy shares at the same time.

This way he ended up buying stocks like ACC, which happened to be rising and rising until it started shooting up dramatically, rising ₹ 200/share and all the way up to ₹ 9,000/share within just three months!

Harshad Mehta Death

Harshad Mehta died at the age of 47. He died due to heart ailments. Mehta reported chest pain and when he was sent to the Thane Civil Hospital, he died.

Few police investigations showed that Mehta suicided. 

On 31 December 2001, Mehta took his last breath in Mumbai.

Allegations On Harshad Mehta

The criminal complaint subsequently filed by the authorities alleged that Mehta and his staff had carried out a much broader plan that resulted in the manipulation of the rise of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the plan was funded with allegedly guaranteed bank receipts which were bank receipts for short-term banking used to bank loans known as “ready forward” transactions that Mehta’s company negotiated.

In the second half of 1991, Mehta earned the nickname “Big Bull” for allegedly starting the bull run on the stock exchange. Among the people who worked in his company was Ketan Parekh, who later became involved in his repeated fraud.

“The Times” reported that Mehta was collecting fake bank receipts for other banks to pay him money, believing they were lending securities. That money was diverted into stocks that were later sold for a profit after the stock market rally.  

Mehta was arrested in 1992 and charged with more than 70 criminal cases related to bribery, fraud, forgery, and other alleged crimes. He was also charged on more than 600 civil claims. He died in 2001 at the age of 48 with 27 cases left pending. 

In addition to the BSE scandal, Mehta also alleged that he had Paid 1 million rupees to Prime Minister Narasimha Rao as a political donation for his rescue–The Hindu Business Line reported after Mehta’s death.

Harshad Mehta – Biography