A web series on scams is trending in the country. This web series is named 'Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story'. This series is based on economic scams, which revolve around the True Story of stockbroker Harshad Mehta. Director Hansal Mehta, who has made films like Aligarh and Shahid, has directed it. In the nineties, Harshad Mehta had scammed about 500 crores rupees. This was the biggest scam of that era. In this article we will tell you about Harshad Mehta, who is still considered the biggest scamster.
Background
In July 1954, Harshad Mehta was born in a village in Rajkot district of Gujarat. Later, his family moved to Kandivali in Mumbai. At the same time, Harshad's father used to do a small business of textiles. Harshad's father came to Raipur (erstwhile Madhya Pradesh) of Chhattisgarh because of the business not doing well. Harshad Mehta's pursued his education here. Average student in studies, Harshad came to Mumbai once again from Raipur and continued to do small jobs for the next 8 years with graduation in Commerce. He even used to sell cloth to cement for living.
Was called "The King of the Stock Market"
During his work, his interest in the stock market arose and soon he started moving forward. Within four years, Harshad learned all the tricks of stock market, which was considered extremely difficult and started his own company. Harshad had become a member of the Mumbai (then Bombay) Stock Exchange, with the foundation of this company called GrowMore Research and Asset Management.
From here Harshad Mehta's career progressed so fast that he started being called the uncrowned king of the stock market. Even in the matter of shares, people had become so confident in this name that it was said that in which they would put their hands, that thing would become gold.
SCAM was exposed!
It was by the end of the eighties, big people had started investing in Mehta's company. He had become a Page 3 celebrity and he used to keep the headlines of newspapers every day. Everyone was surprised at how a small stock company is going up so fast. A journalist of the Times of India named "Sucheta Dalal", exposed the scandal of Harshad. Sucheta Dalal told through her reports that Harshad Mehta is doing a scam due to the shortcomings of the banking system.
How was the Scam done?
Harshad Mehta actually raised funds from banks through Ready Forward (RF) deal. A Ready Forward (RF) deal is a short-term loan, which would be for 15 days. Mehta knew all the nuances of banking. He was also known by many small banks. Taking advantage of this, he made fake banking receipts and through this receipt, he used to take money from other banks and put them in stock. As soon as there was a profit in the stock market, he immediately returned the money to the bank for the receipt. The forgery was running smoothly. But once the stock fell, he could not return the money to the bank at the right time. Only after this, journalist Sucheta Dalal exposed this biggest scam of the stock market.
Death in prison amid charges
After the scam came to light, a number of cases were registered on Harshad Mehta one after the other. These included 70 criminal and about 600 civil cases. However, evidence of only one case could be found. Even after being convicted of such a big scam, Mehta was imprisoned for 5 years and fined 25 thousand. Finally in 2001, Harshad died of a heart attack inside the jail.
The then PM was also accused
The then Congress Government was also accused for the activities of the scamster Mehta. Harshad Mehta then created a sensation by saying that he had given a bribe of one crore rupees in the name of party fund to the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to escape from the case. However, the Congress rejected it outright and thus the charge of taking bribe on the then PM could not be proved.
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