Ahmedabad: Man loses Rs 53 lakh in demat fraud while seeking I-T notice help

Ahmedabad: A 41-year-old project manager with a corporate firm alleged that he was cheated of shares worth Rs 53 lakh after a man who offered to help him respond to an income tax notice gained access to his demat accounts and transferred the securities to another account. A colleague of the complainant was allegedly cheated of shares worth Rs 17.8 lakh by the same accused.According to the complaint, the project manager received an income tax notice on June 20 regarding discrepancies in his expenditure and was asked to submit supporting documents. He contacted a man whose mobile number he had obtained from his office and shared the notice with him.The complainant alleged that the man asked him to provide his bank statement for the previous year and details of his demat account so that a response to the tax notice could be prepared.The accused allegedly told him that his existing demat account could not generate the required audit statement and advised him to open a new account with Zerodha. After the account was opened, the accused allegedly sought the account numbers and passwords of both demat accounts.The complainant stated that he was told to share the login credentials of his ICICI Direct and newly opened demat accounts so that shares could be sold from one account and purchased through the other.Following the instructions, he allegedly sold all shares held in his ICICI Direct account for about Rs 60 lakh. The accused then allegedly logged into the Zerodha account and purchased shares worth Rs 1.6 crore.On Aug 12, the accused allegedly informed him that OTPs would be sent to his mobile phone and email address for an audit process and asked him to share them. The complainant alleged that he provided both OTPs.The following day, he found that his Zerodha portfolio showed a zero balance. After contacting the brokerage, he allegedly learnt that shares worth Rs 53 lakh had been transferred to another demat account.The project manager later found that another employee of the company had allegedly been duped in a similar manner and had lost shares worth Rs 17.8 lakh. He alleged that despite repeated assurances, the accused failed to return the securities, prompting him to lodge a complaint with Adalaj police on Friday night.You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Ahmedabad | Silver Rate in Ahmedabad | Bank Holidays in Ahmedabad | Public Holidays in Ahmedabad | Ahmedabad AQI | Weather in Ahmedabad | Petrol Price in Ahmedabad | Diesel Price in Ahmedabad | CNG Price in Ahmedabad | LPG Price in AhmedabadStay updated with the latest Ahmedabad news. Download the TOI App.