Customer of a securities firm posed as an agent to dupe a fellow customer of Rs 5 lakh 82
Customer of a securities firm posed as an agent to dupe a fellow customer of Rs 5 lakh 82
Nursing patients at the largest Delhi hospital is her forte, but even money needs care and Rekha Kharyal - the nursing incharge at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) - was surely not adept at it.
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Where's my money: Rekha Kharyal at her residenceu00a0
pic/Subhash Barolia |
Her husband used to take care of her investments but after his death in September 2006, Rekha thought of changing her portfolio manager - Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL) - due to "poor" services.
Enter Supradip Ghose, a self-proclaimed branch head of one of the franchisees of equities firm Religare Securities Limited.
Ghose offered Kharyalu00a0 and instant solution to her problem. He told the head nurse that all her shares would be transferred to a de-mat account with Religare. He assured her good returns apart from quick and efficient service.
Posing as the bonafide 'agent' of the Noida-based franchisee, Ghose showed Kharyal a fake ID and visiting card with Religare logo to make her believe that her money was in good hands.
In fact, some of the shares were duly transferred but Ghose managed to get the rest in his personal account, duping Kharyal of Rs 5 lakh in the bargain.
"He took a number of signatures on several papers and told me that he would take instructions over the phone and operate my account. I received my account statement from Religare on January 5, 2009. I was shocked to find that I had only a few shares in my account.
I enquired about the missing shares and came to know that most of the shares have been transferred to Ghose's account in Religare," an angry Kharyal told MiD DAY.
She immediately contacted Ghose to enquire about her lost shares. Ghose, however, told her that one of his associates at Balaji, Shalabh, might have duped her. Later, Kharyal called Ghose to her office at AIIMS and showed him the documents regarding the transfer of shares, warning him of dire consequences if she lost even a penny.
The warning worked. Ghose, fearing a police complaint, transferred some of the shares to her account and deactivated his mobile phone number (9810505610).
The next account statement showed transfer of 1500 shares of Petronet LNG to Kharyal's account, but still a number of shares were missing, prompting the head nurse to call up Ghose's office.
The mother of three admitted that she was not good at handling the investments and her husband used to do it for her. "I was mentally disturbed after the death of my husband and didn't know what to do. It took me a long time to gather full information about the investments that he had made. The SHCIL people did not help much in getting the shares of my husband transferred to my account with them. So, I decided to transfer my holdings to some other company but got duped."
When repeated attempts to reach Ghose failed, Kharyal sent a written complaint against him to his boss, Arti Shroff, the dealer at Balaji Enterprises on March 20, 2009.
Ghose's cover was blown. Kharyal was told that the agency had no employee by that name. However, Shroff said: "He (Ghose) was just a client and often used to trade shares with us. He told us that he was an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank and Kharyal was his relative.
The visiting card which he showed as branch head of Religare was also fake. He is not in touch with us anymore though his account with us is still operational."
Religare Securities Limited also clarified that the firm had nothing to do with the fraud.
"The name of RSL must not be dragged into the case unnecessarily. The person against whom the allegations are raised is not related to us in any manner. The transfer of shares from the de-mat account of the complainant was done on the basis of signed Delivery Instruction slip (DIS) of the complainant. There is no allegation with respect to any trading/dealing in shares.
"RSLu00a0 acted according to the procedure in transferring the shares on the basis of the signed DIS. There are ample opportunities available under the grievance resolution mechanism of the Depositories (NSDL in this case) if the complainant feels otherwise. At best the instant complaint is against an individual with whom RSL has no relationship. RSL role is just limited to the execution of the instruction of its client and nothing more."
Sharing trouble200
Number of shares of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Ltd
150
Number of shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
80
Number of shares of Indian Bank
200
Number of shares of Petronet LNG
