Mumbai Crime: Brokerage firm director, owners held for duping investor of Rs 1.54 crore

Sunil Jain is the director of the brokerage firm

The Vile Parle police have busted a financial scam wherein a brokerage firm duped investors to the tune of Rs 1.4 crore. The cops have arrested Artha Vrddhi Securities director Sunil Jail and owners Dhiren Shukla and Anurag Shukla in the case while a fourth accused, a business consultant for the firm named Jairaj Bafna, is absconding. The firm allegedly approached targets offering them help manage their trading account to make the most benefit. The accused then furnished fake transaction details to the victims and diverted the profit to their relatives.

The scam came to light following a complaint filed by Sunil Giri, a Bandra East resident and property dealer. As per his statement to the police, the scam started in July 2019 when he was approached by a senior manager of Artha Vrddhi Securities who set up a meeting between Giri and Jain and Bafna in October that year. Giri accepted their offer to manage his trading account. The accused then set up a demat account for Giri's company Blue Sea International. Giri told cops that the accused used to send him transaction records and profit and loss reports.

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However, in June 2021 the senior manager from Artha Vrddhi Securities called Giri's company and said that Jain and Bafna were duping them by not trading properly. He allegedly also told Giri that the accused had duped one Manish Shah using the same modus operandi. "Giri then checked his demat account and found the records were not matching. Upon checking with the staff, he learnt that the emails and reports were forged," said a cop.

To check if the allegations are correct and how the firm operates, Giri on July 5, 2021 asked the accused to sell 37,500 shares of Sun Pharma, which he was supposed to have. On July 7, Giri received an email about the transaction. When he cross-checked, he found that Artha Vrddhi Securities had bought only 8,400 shares of the firm which were then sold.

Giri then approached the National Stock Exchange (NSE) following which a detailed enquiry was conducted. NSE found that Jain and Bafna siphoned off crores of rupees. In an order on November 8, 2021, NSE calculated the loss caused to Giri by the accused at Rs 1,54,00,000. Giri then approached the police, which filed an FIR in the case on July 21.