Here’s What Harshad Mehta’s Brother Ashwin Mehta Is Up To These Days

Harshad Mehta’s steep rise to the limelight till his ultimate fall and the strange instances surrounding his demise, all took place in the period of just a few years. He came and took the stock market by storm, and then he left just as randomly.

If you are among people who have watched the Sony Liv series “Scam 1992”, you are no new to the brilliant story of the scam that took the Indian share market by storm. Popularly known as the “Amitabh Bachchan of Dalal Street”, Harshad Mehta came out with certain noteworthy flaws in the stock market system. Post the crash of 1992, the whole structure of the Indian stock market had to be revolutionized. The Securities and Exchange Board of India was established after it, to never let such a fraud happen again.

Now, history has evidently made it clear that even with SEBI, fraudulent people will discover a way to commit fraud. But that is another whole lot of another story.

Whenever we discuss the Scam of 1992, all the limelight is focused on Harshad Mehta himself. The brilliant braveness and intelligence with which the scam was conducted steal all the attention.

But we have to keep in mind that when the scam is so massive and so perplexing, there are most of the time lot of people involved. There is a whole structure responsible here, and the significance of the people behind the mastermind is undoubtedly as significant as the virtuoso himself.

So, we arrive at the subject of the brother of 1992 securities scam mastermind Harshad Mehta and Ashwin Mehta.

Their character has been literally brought to life in “Scam 1992” by the amazing writer-director Hemant Kher. After Sucheta Dalal discovered the scam and published her report, Harshad Mehta got trapped in a lot of cases and allegations. The minute his luck took a different turn, and the scam was discovered, the cards started separating like dominoes. It was at this time that all these fans betrayed him and left him all alone. Of all the people who stayed, were Harshad brother Ashwin Mehta and his wife, named Jyoti Mehta. Harshad along with his brother Ashwin Mehta were even jailed for three months.

Around 600 civil cases and 76 criminal cases were registered against the Harshad Mehta family. Most of their assets were seized and huge fine were slapped. It was only after Harshad Mehta sudden death in 2001 that most of the cases against him were dropped.

After Harshad death Ashwin was left to face the brunt

Ashwin got trapped up in a lot of legal battles which took the better part of the next two decades to conclude. According to Sucheta Dalal,

“A few days after I broke the first story of the Securities Scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) ham-handedly arrested 13-odd people including Harshad Mehta, his brother Ashwin, several of their employees and a few SBI officials.”

It was only in the year 2018 that he was at last released by a special court. The last charge that was left was about the SBI fraud. Obviously, he did not escape scot-free. Ashwin Mehta, too, was jailed for a brief period and had to pay a lot of fines.

As written by Sucheta Dalal,

“A bench headed by Justice SB Sinha also sentenced Ashwin and Sudhir Mehta to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for one month and a fine of Rs. 100,000, each.”

Additionally, he also had to pay an amount of Rs. 1,700 crores in dues to a lot of banks. This money can be detected to original investments given to Harshad Mehta while he was at the top of his game.

Ashwin was also alleged in another case about the diversion of money from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

According to MoneyLife magazine,

“Ashwin Mehta, brother of ‘big bull’ Harshad Mehta has been sentenced five years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs5 lakh in a case related with the diversion of funds from state-run ONGC Ltd.”

Today, Ashwin Mehta is a new man

Far apart are the days of the Bombay Stock Exchange and the benevolence of Harshad. He extracted full advantage of the fact that he was absolved of the charges about his involvement in the Scam of 1992. As Sucheta Dalal puts it,

”Interestingly, Ashwin Mehta, who had been co-accused in this case with the late Harshad was acquitted.”

Ashwin Mehta a qualified lawyer today. He handles cases in the Mumbai High Court as well as in the Supreme Court on the daily basis. He now passes his days using the law to win over arguments and add adventure to his life. He has reached far from the cloud that the Scam 1992 had cast over his whole family.

Also read: Everything About Harshad’s Mehta Son Atur Mehta And What He Is Up To These Days