Harshad Mehta, Rajan Pillai

Mumbai, March 16: India has had a long record of scams — and a few unexplained, mysterious deaths of people with close links to the people behind those shenanigans.

Take the case of M.J. Pherwani.

In May 1992, less than a month after the infamous securities scam broke, the former chairperson of the Unit Trust of India and the National Housing Bank (NHB) was found dead in his apartment. Pherwani had been regarded as the mentor of Harshad Mehta. He was also supposed to have lent NHB funds to the scamster and was struggling to recover it from Harshad Mehta and his associates. On May 21 — less than 12 days after resigning as NHB chairperson — Pherwani was found dead by his family members at his Bombay home.

“The journalist (R.C. Murthy, then chief of bureau at Business Standard) got a phone call and rushed to the house about 8am,” writes Hamish Macdonald in his book Polyester Prince which tells the story of Dhirubhai Ambani’s rise to power and pelf.

“Pherwani’s body looked blue, he (Murthy) remembers. It was cremated at 11.30am the same day with the face covered instead of being kept open in the normal Hindu way. The death was ascribed vaguely to a heart attack. Murthy and many others believe Pherwani committed suicide,” adds Macdonald.

Several other bit players involved in the securities scam of 1992 also died during the tortuous investigations and the prolonged court process which continues till this day.

Several mid-sized businessmen who turned bankrupt overnight in the stock market crash after the scam was unearthed also committed suicide in the days that followed.

Harshad Mehta himself died of a heart attack in 2002 after spending a long time in judicial custody. The big bull was arrested in November 1992 for forging share transfer forms and taking control of more than 27 lakh shares worth Rs 250 crore.

Mehta who was charged with 72 criminal conspiracies and 600 civil action suits died with several of these cases still hanging fire.

Another Indian businessmen who died under mysterious circumstances at New Delhi’s Tihar jail in 1995 while battling with the law was “ biscuit king” Rajan Pillai.

The businessman from Kerala was a fugitive from Singapore and awaiting an extradition treaty at the time. In 1993, Pillai was charged of defrauding Singapore of $18 million. While a local court prepared a prison sentence, Pillai chose to come to India.

Doctors said Pillai died of liver cirrhosis in hospital while in judicial custody. His widow Neena Pillai, however, alleged that her husband suffered on account of a criminal conspiracy hatched by foreign and Indian businessmen to ensure that he did not wrest control of Britannia Industries.