Shah, who runs a low-rent guest house for cancer patients in Parel and lives in Matunga West, alleged that neither he nor his wife had any real knowledge of the stock market. The shares they held were inherited decades earlier, in 1984, after the death of Shah’s father, and had never been actively traded.
What he thought was a safe, guided entry into the market began in 2020, following a friend’s suggestion to open demat and trading accounts. Their inherited shares were transferred to the brokerage, and, according to Shah, company representatives assured him that no additional investment was required and that the shares could be used safely as collateral.
He further alleged that the firm assigned “personal guides” to manage his account. Two individuals were placed in charge of his portfolio and gradually took control over trading and communications, Shah claimed as per reports.
According to the FIR, the pattern of engagement shifted. Daily phone calls turned into home visits. Emails were allegedly sent from the representatives’ own laptops. Shah said he complied with all instructions, entering every OTP, responding to every text message, and following directions without question. “I was only given the information I needed to know,” he claimed, as per reports.
Between March 2020 and June 2024, Shah alleged that the annual statements he received consistently showed profits. With every “clean” update, the illusion of normalcy deepened.“For four years, the company presented us with a false picture, while the actual losses continued to mount,” Shah said, as per reports.The truth, he alleged, surfaced in July 2024, when a call from the firm’s risk management department informed him: “You and your wife have a debit balance of Rs 35 crore in your accounts. You must pay it immediately, or your shares will be sold.”
When Shah visited the office, he claimed he was informed that extensive unauthorised trading had allegedly taken place in his accounts. Numerous so-called circular trades — repetitive buy-sell transactions allegedly carried out with the same counterparty — had, he was told, pushed his portfolio into a deep loss.
Faced with the immediate threat of liquidation, Shah alleged he sold his remaining shares and paid the Rs 35 crore demanded of him, before transferring his leftover holdings to another firm.
Only later, when he downloaded a comprehensive trading statement from the company’s website and compared it to the emailed performance reports he had been receiving, did Shah claim the scale of the alleged deception become visible. The records, he alleged, did not match.
He further claimed to have discovered that the company had received multiple notices from the National Stock Exchange (NSE), responses to which had allegedly been sent in his name without his knowledge.
Calling it an “organised financial fraud”, Shah lodged a complaint with the Vanrai police station. The case, registered under Indian Penal Code sections including 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating), has now been handed over to the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police for further investigation.
In its submission, the EOW alleged that the brokerage “wrongfully hypothecated the complainant’s shares and carried out unauthorised trading activities”, including repetitive buy-sell transactions in the futures and options segment with the same counterparty.
For Shah, what was once a quiet retirement arrangement anchored in inherited shares has turned into an unfolding legal battle, and, he claims, a four-year silence that ended in a single, devastating number: Rs 35 crore.
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