From Sahara to Satyam: India’s Thriving Robbery of Common Man
A representative image of financial frauds in India. (Image TRH)
Behind the glamour of boardrooms and billionaires lies a darker story — of frauds that hollow out India’s economy, drive up your EMIs, and erode public trust. From Sahara to Mallya, Mehul Choksi to Harshad Mehta, the cost of corruption is paid by every Indian.
By AMIT KUMAR
New Delhi, October 25, 2025 — White-collar crime is often dismissed as victimless — but in India, it has bled the economy dry and burdened millions of honest citizens. From the Sahara Group’s depositor scam to Vijay Mallya’s loan default, Mehul Choksi’s PNB fraud, Harshad Mehta’s stock market manipulation, and Satyam Computers’ accounting scandal, the common thread is betrayal — of trust, of savings, and of a nation’s promise.
Take the Sahara scam. Once celebrated as the “Sahara India Parivar,” the group raised nearly ₹24,000 crore through OFCD schemes without SEBI’s approval, duping about three crore small investors, mostly from rural India. Many lost their life savings. Subrata Roy, the company’s flamboyant chief, went to jail — but justice for the victims remains elusive.
Then came Vijay Mallya, the “King of Good Times.” His glamorous lifestyle masked a ₹9,000 crore loan default owed to 17 banks. When the loans went sour, Mallya fled to the UK in 2016, leaving behind empty accounts and a trail of unpaid debts — a symbol of how privilege can outfly accountability.
The PNB scam of 2018, engineered by Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, exposed the vulnerabilities of India’s banking system. Fake Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) enabled them to siphon off ₹12,000–13,000 crore, shaking investor confidence in one of India’s oldest banks.
Corruption wasn’t confined to finance. Lalit Modi, the controversial founder of the Indian Premier League, turned cricket into a corporate controversy — with allegations of tax evasion, money laundering, and bid manipulation. The IPL’s glamour masked a deeper rot of influence and excess.
Go back to 1992, when Harshad Mehta’s stock market fraud made “Big Bull” a household name. By manipulating bank receipts and diverting ₹4,000 crore, he sent the Sensex soaring — then crashing. Thousands of investors were ruined, and the Reserve Bank of India was forced to clean up the wreckage.
A decade later, Satyam Computers showed that even the tech world wasn’t immune. In 2009, chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed to inflating profits by ₹7,000 crore. The “India’s Enron” scandal wiped out shareholder wealth and left 13,000 employees jobless overnight.
The Sharda chit fund (₹2,500 crore), Ketan Parekh’s securities scam (₹800 crore), and Sterling Biotech’s bank fraud (₹5,000 crore) all add to the list of corporate betrayals.
And now, cybercrime — the new face of white-collar theft. With phishing links, fake UPI requests, and digital frauds, India lost nearly ₹1.2 lakh crore in 2023. The victims? Ordinary citizens — from students to senior citizens — robbed by unseen, tech-savvy criminals.
But these scams don’t just loot money — they weaken the economy’s foundations. Every unpaid loan becomes a non-performing asset (NPA), forcing banks to recover losses by raising lending rates and lowering deposit returns. The burden falls squarely on the middle class: higher EMIs, lower savings, and eroding trust.
At the national level, white-collar crime slows growth, raises inflation, and cuts off public investment that could have built schools, hospitals, or roads. It deepens inequality, where the powerful escape accountability while the powerless pay the price.
These crimes don’t happen in isolation. Bank officers, politicians, and bureaucrats often enable them — approving risky loans, issuing fake documents, or obstructing investigations. From PNB’s forged LoUs to politically influenced appointments in public banks, the nexus between money and power runs deep.
To fight this, India needs systemic reform.
- Unified prosecution: Money-laundering and corruption cases should be handled by a single judge to prevent procedural delays.
- Accountability in lending: Bankers and borrowers involved in fraudulent loans must face swift, stringent punishment.
- Tighter regulation: Only RBI-licensed institutions should collect deposits — ending the reign of unregulated chit funds and shady finance schemes.
- Stronger cyber vigilance: Digital literacy, AI-based fraud detection, and cross-border cooperation are now national imperatives.
Because every scam isn’t just a crime against the state — it’s a theft from the citizen. Each fraudulent rupee stolen is a classroom not built, a hospital underfunded, a dream deferred.
(This is an opinion piece, and views expressed are those of the author only)
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