Harshad Mehta is often known as the “Big Bull” of the Indian Stock Market. He is remembered for his rapid rise and sudden downfall in the Indian Stock Market in the early 1990s. This piece of biography blog will be going to unveil his Age, Death, Biography, Wikipedia, Children, Wife, SCAM 1992, Impact, and more. Stay tuned!
Harshad Mehta Biography
He was an Indian Stockbroker and Businessman. He was found guilty of fraud due to his involvement in the 1992 Indian Securities Scam of about ₹4,000 crores.
Harshad Shantilal Mehta was born on 29 July 1954 in a Gujarati Jain Family at Paneli Moti, Rajkot, Gujarat. He died on 31 December 2001 in Thane Civil Hospital during Police Custody. He had a Leo Zodiac sign and was an Indian Citizen.
| Real name | Harshad Shantilal Mehta |
| Profession | Business, Stockbroker |
| Name Earned | Big Bull & The Amitabh Bachchan of Stock Market |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of birth | 29 July 1954 |
| Age | 47 years (At the Time of Death) |
| Birthplace | Paneli Moti, Rajkot, Gujarat |
| Hometown | Paneli Moti, Rajkot |
| Date of Death | 31 December 2001 |
| Place of Death | Thane Civil Hospital |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Gujarati |
| Zodiac sign | Leo |
Harshad Mehta Age
Harshad was born on 29 July 1954 and died on 31 December 2001. He passed away at the age of 47 years.
Harshad Mehta Family
Parents
He was born into a Gujarati family. His father, Shantilal Mehta, was a businessman by profession, and his mother, Rasilaben Mehta.
Harshad Mehta Wife
Harshad was married before his death to Jyoti. After the death of Harshad, his wife continued to fight legal battles to clear his name. For this, she launched a website to guard her late husband in 2022 where she blamed the jail authorities for medical abandonment that led to her husband’s death.
Harshad Siblings
He had three brothers named Sudhir, Hitesh, and Ashwin. All three were Advocate by profession.
Harshad Mehta Son
Harshad had one son named Atur Mehta who is also an Indian Businessman investor and entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India. He prefers to stay away from the general public eye. According to sources, he purchased a 23% stake in Square Deal Filaments, a Bombay Stock Exchange-listed textile company.
Harshad Mehta Net Worth
According to reports, Harshad Mehta net worth Is estimated to be around 3542 crores when he was alive. His fortune increased by an immense rate when he was at his peak office stockbroking career. Meanwhile, a lot of people faced financial loss due to the biggest scam done by him.
Harshad Mehta House in Mumbai
- He had a lavish sea-facing apartment in Madhuli Society in South Mumbai. This property has several amenities, such as a mini theatre, private swimming pool, billboard room, gym, and more. It has eight apartments spread over an area of 12,600 square feet. After his death in 2009, this house was auctioned and sold for 32.6 crore.
- Apart from his main house, he also had two flats in a posh area of Mumbai. Mehta owns two apartments in Vandana CHS on Janki Kutir Road in Juhu. Each of the flats was built in more than 1000 square feet with a sea-facing view.
- He had Growmore Research and Assets Management office in Mumbai which was spread over an entire floor.
Car Collection
- Lexus LS400 which cost around 45 Lakh in the 1990s.
- Mehta purchased Hindustan Motors Contessa for around 5.90 Lakh.
- Fiat Padmini which was around 2 Lakh.
- Mercedes Benz W126
Harshad’s Early Life and Education
Harshad completed his schooling at Janta Public School, Camp 2, Bhilai. During his school days, he was keen on cricket but did not pursue it further. After completing his schooling, he shifted to Mumbai to continue his education and seek work opportunities.
He studied at Lala Lajpatrai College, Mumbai, where he achieved his Bachelor of Commerce. Prior to entering the share market, Harshad worked for eight years and did a variety of different odd jobs, which gave him a multitude of experiences that defined his career.
Harshad Career
- In his initial career, he did several jobs like cement selling hosiery, and sorting diamonds. Then he also did a job as a salesperson at New India Insurance Company Limited in Mumbai. While working at this company he developed an interest in the stock market. After that, he resigned from his job and joined the brokerage firm. He worked at a lower-level clerical job at Harjivandas Nemidas Securities.
- In the early 1980s. Here He worked as a distributor for the broker Prasann Pranjivandas whom he often called Guru. After working for a decade, he worked in a position where responsibility had increased. He reached a prominent position in the Indian Securities Industry by 1990. He earned the nickname “Amitabh Bachchan of the Stock market.”
- Mehta founded his firm GrowMore Research and Asset Management in 1990. He managed to convince lots of people to invest and use his company’s services. At that time, he started investing significantly in the ACC shares and the share of ACC suddenly increased from ₹200 to almost ₹9,000 due to a substantial series of buying from established brokers including him. During 1990-91, the media had given him the name of “The Big Bull.”
- Later in the criminal charges filed by the authorities, it was alleged that Harshad and his associates had hatched much more massive schemes that ultimately culminated in the rigging of the Bombay Stock Exchange’s rise. The funds used were supposedly collateralized bank receipts, which held no collateral. The cash bank receipts were used to undertake short-term interbank lending called “ready forward” deals, to which Mehta’s firm was merely acting as a facilitator.
The 1992 securities scam and exposure
Till the early 90s, banks were not permitted to invest in the stock market, but Harshad had convinced senior officials of banks by offering the bank higher interest rates to transfer the money directly to his account. So, the bank had issued fake bank receipts in his name. Once he got the capital from banks, he invested substantial money in buying certain shares that would increase the price of those shares. It ultimately attracted other investors to invest in those particular shares. After that, the price of the shares suddenly increased, and he secretly sold his shares with a huge margin of profit. For example, he invested in ACC cement in 1991 with ₹200. Then it increased to ₹9000 within three months.
Sucheta Dalal, a journalist exposed this illegal method through a column in the Times of India on April 23, 1992. She broke the story of this unethical practice and used Harshad to influence the share price. She stated that Harshad had cheated ₹4 billion from the State Bank of India by generating SGL Receipts to disappear.
Impact of the scam
The 1992 scam had impacted the banking system and capital market very deeply in the country. After the scam was revealed, Sensex fell from 4467 points to 2529 points. Further, this scam gave more than one lakh crore loss to the market. Banks were left with worthless BRs and a huge ₹4000 crore loss. Moreover, the former chairman of Vijaya Bank MR. B.B. Shetty did suicide as he had supposedly issued fake cheques to Harshad. More names were revealed in this scam like Aditya Birla, RBI governor S Venkitaramanan, Palav Seth, and Ajay Kayan. As the political environment got heated up, he did a press conference where he said that he had paid ₹1,00,00,000 to the prime minister of India PV Narasimha Rao to put his name away from this scam.
Harshad investigation
The Reserve Bank of India made the Janakiraman Committee investigate this scam. Moreover, he was found guilty in several cases of roads in September 1999. For his involvement in the Maruti Udyog Limited Fraud Case, he was sentenced to five years in jail. While he was serving his punishment in jail, he got chest pain on December 31, 2001, and was taken to Thane Civil Hospital. Despite every effort made to save him, he died from a heart ailment and 47.
Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story” Web Series
Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta story is an Indian Web series that is based on the life of Stockbroker Harshad and his involvement in the 1992 security scam. This series Took the ideas from “The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away.” This book was written by journalists Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu.
- Director: Hansal Mehta
- Platform: SonyLIV
- Release Date: October 9, 2020
- Episodes: 10
- Genre: Financial Drama, Biography
Cast
- Pratik Gandhi as Harshad
- Shreya Dhanwanthary as Sucheta Dalal
- Hemant Kher as Ashwin Mehta (Harshad’s brother)
- Anjali Barot as Jyoti Mehta (Harshad’s wife)
- Rajat Kapoor as CBI Officer Madhavan
- Satish Kaushik as Manu Mundra
Final Say!
The story of Harshad is a testament to ambition and greediness. From his modest beginning to becoming the most prominent stock broker in India, his journey was commendable but his fall down was equally dramatic. His life serves as the inspirational tale that reminds us of the fine line between success and scandal.
Trivia (SOME LESSER KNOWN FACTS)
- He spent his entire childhood in Kandivali Mumbai, where his father used to run his small textile business. Later, his family went to Raipur Chhattisgarh, where he completed his schooling, but he came back to Bombay for his graduation.
- He was born into a Gujarati Jain family, who did 1992 stock market scam, which was the biggest ever stock market scam in India.
- Before coming into the Indian stock market, he did several odd jobs for almost 8 to 10 years.
- He became a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange in 1984 and later he established his own brokerage company named Growmore Research and Asset Management.
- He manipulated the share price of ACC cement from ₹200 to ₹9000 within three months.
- He was also known by other names like The Big Bull and The Amitabh Bachchan of Stock Market.
- He lived in a 15,000 ft.² penthouse in Mumbai that constitutes several amenities like a mini golf course, swimming pool, gym, and many more inside the property. Moreover, he owned a famous fancy car Toyota Lexus which cost around 45,00,000 at that time.
- His scam was revealed by Suchita Dalal in an article in the Times of India explaining exactly how Harshad committed financial fraud from the treasury of the State Bank of India.
- CBI arrested him in 1992 with his brother and charged 72 criminal offences and above 600 criminal action cases on him. These cases and offenses were boarded against him by several banks and institutions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Harshad was an Indian broker known for his involvement in a 1992 securities scam. It was one of the largest financial scandals in the history of India.
He was born on 29 July 1954, in Paneli Moti a small village in the Rajkot district of Gujarat, India.
He was often called The Big Bull and The Amitabh Bachchan of Stock Market.
He attended Janta Public School in Bhilai and later moved to Mumbai, where he did his graduation with a bachelor of commerce from Lala Lajpat Rai College.
He used collateralized bank receipts to secure funds from the bank. After that, he invested these funds in stocks just to inflate the price. When the cam was exposed, it was one of the massive crashes in the stock market.
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