A former employee of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd was arrested by Dadar police on Wednesday for allegedly siphoning off approximately Rs1.58 crore from a customer’s demat account. The accused, Gaurang Mandalia, 31, had altered the e-mail ID, bank account, and mobile number linked to the account, enabling him to transfer the funds.
Mandalia, who had joined the financial services firm in May 2021, was employed in the firm’s operations department. He was responsible for quarterly payment settlements until his termination following the registration of a first information report (FIR) against him last month.
The fraud was uncovered when a senior citizen, who had opened a demat account with Motilal Oswal in 2016, approached the firm after noticing that her shares were no longer visible in her account. The account had been marked dormant in July 2023 due to inactivity, but in August 2024, the account details were mysteriously changed, including the e-mail ID, bank account, and mobile number.
An internal investigation by the financial firm revealed that Mandalia had likely forged the customer’s signature to fill out the modification form and reactivated the dormant demat account. From August 2024 to January 2025, Mandalia transferred shares worth Rs1.58 crore by encashing them into his own bank account.
Mandalia was produced in court and remanded to three days of police custody. The case was registered by the Dadar police station based on a complaint filed by the firm’s legal manager.
