Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

CBI questioning several sub-brokers in Harshad case

The Central Bureau of Investigation is questioning several sub-brokers in Bombay in connection with the alleged illegal sale of shares worth Rs several hundred million by big bull Harshad Mehta and his two brothers and might soon place some of them under arrest, agency sources said in New Delhi on Monday.

The sources claimed that investigations into the case have so far indicated that the sale of more than 2.7 million shares, mainly of blue chip companies, had fetched Rs several hundred millions to the Mehta brothers.

They said the Bank Securities and Fraud Cell of the CBI had examined several sub-brokers, who were allegedly helpful in making the forged documents for the Mehtas to facilitate the sale of shares, besides questioning some of the relatives of Mehta, in whose names the shares were fraudently sold.

The CBI had arrested Harshad and his two brothers, Ashwin and Sudhir, in Bombay on November 9 for sale of the shares in violation of a government order that all the property of the "Big Bull" stood attached.

The CBI, after registering a "missing shares" case in May this year, found that the shares had not been stolen at all but transferred in the market.

The CBI said that majority of shares were sold in 1995 and 1996 when the share market was relatively in a better position, the sources said.

They said that more arrests were likely in the case as the investigating agency had found involvement of some of the sub-brokers.

Tell us what you think of this report