The Mumbai Police have registered a case against three individuals accused of cheating a 52-year-old Parsi priest of shares worth ₹16.9 crore through forged documents linked to a joint Demat account. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has now taken over the investigation.
According to the complaint filed at Azad Maidan Police Station, the victim, Framroze Dadi Vaccha, a resident of Jogeshwari, alleged that his late maternal aunt, Homai Karkaria, who lived alone in Dhobi Talao, had opened a joint Demat account with him at Standard Chartered Bank in 1999. The account held shares of several major companies, including ACC Ltd, Aditya Birla Capital, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and Benares Hotels Ltd.
Between 2018 and 2020, the accused — identified as Lohrasp D. Kalyaniwala, Dilbar L. Kalyaniwala, and Atush Kalyaniwala, who were known to the family — allegedly tampered with the account’s KYC records, forged Vaccha’s signatures, and replaced his contact and nominee details with their own. The forged documents allowed them to transfer shares worth nearly ₹17 crore to another ICICI Bank joint Demat account opened in the names of Lohrasp Kalyaniwala and Karkaria.
Vaccha said he discovered the share fraud in November 2024 after obtaining detailed statements from Standard Chartered, which revealed multiple unauthorised transfers. He alleged that the accused exploited his aunt’s trust and isolation, using fake paperwork and false authorisations to seize control of her financial assets.
Police have registered offences under sections related to cheating, criminal breach of trust, and provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.
An EOW official described the case as a “highly calculated instance of financial exploitation within a trusted social circle.” Investigators are tracing the flow of the transferred shares and checking if any bank officials or intermediaries were involved.
A senior cybersecurity consultant said, “This share fraud case reflects a dangerous evolution in white-collar crime where emotional manipulation, family ties, and document forgery converge to create the illusion of legitimacy.”
The incident has raised concerns about insider-led financial crimes, where misplaced trust can become the biggest vulnerability.
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