Harshad Mehta Biography,  Scam 1992, Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family & More

Harshad Shantilal Mehta was a stockbroker from India who became the most famous person in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to his risky and ambitious actions in the stock market. Referred to as the Big Bull and the Amitabh Bachchan of the Stock Market, he is the architect of the 1992 stock market scam, worth more than 30,000 crores, one of the largest financial scandals in the history of India. He is one of the most discussed names in Indian financial circles, as his rich, powerful yet controversial story is dominated by his downfall.

Harshad Mehta Biography 

Harshad Mehta was an Indian broker who also gained fame by executing the stock market scam of 1992 with an estimated value of more than 30000 crore in Rupees. He was also nicknamed the Big Bull and he revolutionized Sensex and also had an impact on the dominant stock movements during the early 90s. His flamboyant life and aggressive modes of trading turned him into the center of a media hype. Nevertheless, his empire toppled him after being exposed and he had legal problems, which resulted in his death in 2001.

Harshad Mehta’s Age, Height, Weight & Physical Status

Harshad Mehta was born on 29 July 1954 and died on 31 December 2001 at the age of 47 years.

Early Life & Family Background

Harshad Mehta was born in Paneli Moti, Rajkot, Gujarat, in a Gujarati Jain family. He had a father named Shantilal Mehta who was a petite businessman and he was initially dealing in a textile business. His mother, Rasilaben Mehta, was a housewife who contributed a lot in bringing him up. Harshad belonged to a family of three brothers namely Sudhir Mehta, Hitesh Mehta, and Ashwin Mehta who later on became a lawyer and defended Harshad in court. 

Family Details 

His Educational details

Harshad attended Holy Cross Senior Secondary School, Raipur. At a later time he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Lala Lajpat Rai College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai, in 1976.

Harshad Mehta’s Career

The career of Harshad Mehta started after he completed his B.Com in 1976 when he undertook odd jobs such as hosiery selling, sorting diamonds, and working as an insurance clerk at the New India Assurance Company Limited. His entry into the stock market was in 1981 where he joined as a jobber to stockbroker Prasann Pranjivandas, who taught him trading strategies. 

Founder of GrowMore Research and Asset Management

By 1984, Mehta was admitted to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and started his own company named GrowMore Research and Asset Management. In the late 80s and early 90s, he founded a peculiar yet risky technique of using defects of the banking system to get money and inject it into the chosen stocks to artificially increase their prices. 

Sensex rose by 1000 to 4500 points during a one-year period within which he made bold moves in the market. He was at his most decisive when it came to investing in firms such as ACC Cement, Reliance, Tata Steel, BPL, Videocon, and Apollo Tyres, among others, notoriously inflating the value of the share of ACC to 3000 percent by pushing its price from 200 to 9000 rupees in three months. 

Harshad Mehta’s Indian Securities Scam 1992

The securities scam of 1992 also known as Scam 1992 was characterized by Harshad Mehta taking advantage of banking system loopholes in India. He used his access to vast sums of money at the banks, invested to drive up stock prices on a few holdings and then cashed out with huge profits before returning the funds. This manipulation caused the sensex to rise to 4500 points in a year downwards to 1000 points. 

This fraud was uncovered by a journalist, Sucheta Dalal, on 23 April 1992 followed by his 4000+ crore securities scam, a crash in the market, losses by investors worth billions of rupees and several cases against Mehta.

After numerous arrests and more than 600 criminal cases, the career of Mehta was ruined. In 1999 he was prosecuted in a fraud case and imprisoned for 5 years. He died at 47 due to a heart attack in 2001.

Harshad Mehta other scams and Controversies

The most scandalous moment of the life of Harshad Mehta was the 1992 scam when he used the loopholes of a banking system in order to transfer the funds to the stock market. The scandal led to the huge crash that destroyed billions of wealth of investors. 

• In 1993 he scammed PM Narasimha Rao with ₹1 crore, but no proof was found.
• In 1999 he was also doing other scams as well and was found guilty in the Maruti Udyog fraud case and sentenced to 5 years in jail.
• His wife, Jyoti Mehta, argued in July 2022 that jail officials were negligent in his death and that the family has been subjected to a lifetime of what she calls group punishment; she backed her claims by launching a website to support his memory.

Career Timeline 

Web series:  “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story” 

“Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story” is an Indian web series released on 9  October, 2020. dramatizes the life story of Harshad Mehta’s 1992 scam. The series stands out due to immense storytelling, period-accurate production design and powerful performances by Pratik gandhi and Shreya Dhanwanthary. This story is taken from the Book “ The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away,” written by Sucheta Dalal & Debashish Basu.

The Big Bull: Movie based on his real-life story

Harshad has continued to pop into the financial and pop-culture landscape even after death. He earned the nickname of the “Big Bull” due to his bullish behavior towards the share market, where he would always take bets on the rising value of the prices. The word also makes up the name of a 2021 Bollywood film, directed by Kookie Gulati. It is based on the real-life story of Harshad Mehta (role played by Abhishek Bachchan) as Hemant Shah, inspired by the scam of 1992. It showed his soaring career and life of luxury and later his downfall, portrayed in the movie the “The Big Bull.” 

“The Big Bull” Projected the impact of greed, ambition, and the complexities of the stock market during a transformative era of indian finance.

Movies & TV Shows Based on Harshad Mehta’s Life

Interesting Facts about Harshad Mehta

• The Big Bull is also referred to as the bullish market strategies.
• He Possessed a penthouse in Worli of 15,000 sq. ft., which had a mini-golf course and a swimming pool.
• Rode around in a 40 lakh Toyota Lexus in the 90s, a time when these cars were totally unheard of in India.
• He was a media sensation and a luxury living lifestyle.

Personal Life  

Harshad Mehta’s Wife: Jyoti Mehta

Harshad Mehta was married to Jyoti Mehta and had one son, Aatur Harshad Mehta. No more details are available publicly about her wife. They never had daughters. Most of the time, the Mehta family maintained a low profile, besides the 1992 scam where they were in the limelight.

In spite of the controversies, years after his death, Jyoti has been defending him and even established a website in the year 2022 to proclaim his innocence and point out medical negligence in his death on the part of the jail authorities.

Aatur Harshad Mehta: Harshad Mehta’s Son

Aatur harshad Mehta is the single son of the late Harshad Mehta and Jyoti Mehta. He has mostly remained out of the limelight, though it is established that he engages in business. Aatur does not seek attention in the press and largely leaves his personal life to himself, although his name has periodically popped up in the literature in the context of his investments in businesses. He has never been involved in any controversy related to him as compared to his father.

Harshad Mehta Net Worth 2025

The estimated net worth of Harshad Mehta was not known publicly but it was ₹3542 crore at the time of his death. Harshad earned wealth through stock market transactions, scams and frauds, property and investments. But following the scam revelations, the majority of his property was taken away and the net worth went down steeply before his death in 2001.

Conclusion

The story of Harshad Mehta is among the most interesting ones in the history of Indian finance. His was a meteoric rise, especially to prominence in the world of stockbroking and to the position of the most discussed stockbroker in the country, and his fall was meteor-like in equal measure. The scam in 1992 altered the history of Indian financial regulations and goes down in history as one of the warnings of the dangers of uncontrolled messing with the markets.

FAQs 

Written by: Sachin
Audited by: Ashirwad
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Refresh Date: August 20, 2025