A case has been registered against a mutual fund distributor named Hitendra Thakkar for allegedly forging documents, cheating and siphoning ₹37 lakhs from a senior citizen client.
The complainant, Gurumukh Singh Ujagar Singh Bhui (78), a resident of Mulund, gave his statement to the Mulund police on Thursday. According to Bhui, he met Thakkar in 2017, when the latter wanted to rent a shop for his life insurance-related workplace. Thereby, Bhui started investing in mutual funds, suggested and recommended by Thakkar, and by the end, he even provided investment statements to Bhui.
In January 2022, Bhui went to a Mulund-based bank to get a copy of the fund statement when he noticed that the email ID and contact number mentioned were of Thakkar, instead of him. When Bhui asked Thakkar about it, the latter started avoiding him. Bhui started to look at his other mutual funds when he got to know that Thakkar, without his consent, made a Demat account at Samco Securities Limited, a share broking company.
Thakkar forged documents, signature
Bhui further alleged that Thakkar forged documents and his signature to open the account during which he submitted an account opening form, voluntary authorisation letter, and power of attorney – where Thakkar used Bhui’s forged signature. Bhui alleged that through this demat account, Thakkar was making several transactions under Bhui’s name – which he did not know.
Furthermore, of the several mutual funds, Thakkar allegedly redeemed some money, costing up to ₹38,261,66 which he then transferred to the Demat account under Bhui’s name. In July 2022 when Bhui asked about the same to Thakkar, he gave him three cheques but all of them bounced due to insufficient funds, said Bhui.
Police have booked Thakkar under the charges of 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 478 (forgery for cheating), and 479 (property mark) of the Indian Penal Code. A probe has been initiated in the matter, said officials from Mulund police station.
