Widow duped of shares by web trading company?

When her husband passed away 13 years ago, Renu Jain was faced with the responsibility of bringing up their three children all by herself. A little solace was the fact that her husband had left behind shares worth Rs 22-25 lakh. However, when she decided to use some of that money this year, Jain was shocked to find out that all the shares, except a few worth Rs 70,000, had been sold without her knowledge.



Out of luck
Jain's financial fortune took a turn for worse when one Lalit Sharma, an employee of the India Infoline, convinced her to open a Demat account and transfer all shares from the ICICI account to Infoline. She did so in February 2010. Soon, she started suffering losses and asked Sharma not to use her shares for trading.

"Despite that, he continued trading without my consent or knowledge. In May this year, my phone line, which was registered with the company and on which I used to receive the trading SMSes, got disconnected. I tried to get in touch with Sharma but he never picked up my calls," the complainant, working with an airline company, alleged.

After nearly a year, Jain found out her account was almost empty. She then visited the Infoline office in February this year, where the company showed her a copy of a consent or authority slip, signed on 20 August 2010. The slip had her signature and authorised her to take decisions on her behalf.

Trade secrets
"The agent said my son authorised him to trade but it is not true. The documents were all faked.u00a0 My son was not even in the town that day, as he had to attend a counselling session at a college in Jaipur. The signatures of witnesses and their addresses were also faked," said Jain. >contd. on page 3

Jain then filed a complaint at the Moti Nagar police station and Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police. Despite several calls and letters to the India Infoline, Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and Delhi Police, no action was taken against the employee or the company. Left with no choice, Jain finally decided to move Tis Hazari court against Delhi police for not lodging a proper FIR.

Talking to MiD DAY, Jain said, "With intent to cheat me, Sharma requested me to open a trading account with India Infoline and convinced me to sign a bunch of papers.u00a0 I made a call to the company to stop trading from my account, which was confirmed by assistant vice-president Ashish Gulshan, in mid-January.u00a0 Now, there are hardly any shares in the account."

Countering all allegations, the India Infoline spokesperson said, "The client did not show her son's return ticket from Jaipur to Delhi for the reasons best known to her. He must have signed the documents before leaving for Jaipur. Even if he did not, the Delhi-Jaipur flight takes hardly 45 minutes and one can easily return the same day. The journey by road is also merely 4 hours."

He further said, "We had supplied the relevant blank documents to the client based on her requests only. She filled in all the information herself. Also, if the phone line was disconnected, the onus of informing about that to the company was on the client. We have provided all relevant documents to the police for investigation as per the directions of the court. Since the matter is subjudice, we do not wish to offer any more comments."