Decades after the 1992 securities scam, Harshad Mehta’s brother Sudhir Mehta and five others, including senior bank officials and stock brokers were convicted by a special court in a case linked to defrauding of National Housing Bank to the tune of over ₹ 700 crore.
The case against Harshad Mehta – one of the key accused was abated following his death in 2002. Pleas for mercy by accused who have claimed that they have suffered for more than two decades and had health issues were refused by Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi.
“It is true that in this case the offence has taken place, way back in the year 1992. It is also true that during this period of 24 years, the accused persons have undergone both physical and mental suffering,” said the judge adding that the nature of the crime would also have to be measured.
“(The offence) is of a grave and serious nature (and) it is of siphoning off crores of funds of the nationalized bank, to the account of some third person, who was not entitled to it, like the accused Harshad Mehta. The country has witnessed the repercussions of the said offence in the sense that the economy was totally shattered on account of this scam,” the judge said.
Sudhir and Harshad Mehta’s Cousin Deepak Mehta – a stock broker, together with NHB officials C Ravikumar and Suresh Babu, SBI officer R Sitaraman and stock broker Atul Parekh were convicted by the court.
They were held guilty under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code linked to corruption, forgery and criminal breach of trust, and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. They have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from six months to four years apart from being imposed for fines of ₹ 11.95 lakh.
However, three others, including Hiten Mehta, another of Harshad Mehta’s cousins, were acquitted in the case. Hiten Mehta was 19 years old at the time of the scam.
The court suspended its verdict for eight weeks after the accused claimed that the apex court was going on a winter vacation soon and they would have hard time collecting money to pay fines owing to demonetisation effects.
The securities scam involved officers of NHB, SBI and other banks and financial institutions, illegitimately siphoning off crores of funds of the institutions for speculative returns by systemic and deliberate abuse of the system.
