Annual government reports from the National Crime Bureau reveal that over 50 lakh crimes are committed in India every year, according to the National Crime Bureau. With a population of over 130 million people and a society beset by economic and social problems, a slew of crimes are reported in the country on a daily basis. Some crimes, on the other hand, stand out for the sheer amount of intelligence and brainpower that went into them. Several crimes in India have raised eyebrows, ranging from exploiting systemic flaws to devising novel methods of evading law enforcement authorities.  

A list of the five most intelligent crimes committed in India is presented to you: 

• Harshad Mehta’s Securities Scam of 1991 was the first of its kind. 

In India, a stockbroker known as Harshad Mehta, also known as the ‘Big Bull’ on the Bombay Stock Exchange, cleverly extracted large sums of money from the banking system by taking advantage of their loopholes and investing the resulting wealth in the stock market, earning him the nickname. He engaged in massive stock manipulation, in which he not only drained capital from the banking system but also increased demand for certain stocks, which he then sold at a much higher profit, enabling him to amass millions of dollars.  

Mehta was successful in manipulating share prices through this system to the point where shares of companies such as ACC, one of India’s largest cement producers, increased from Rs 200 per share to Rs 9000 per share in a matter of three months. Sucheta Dalal, a Times of India columnist who was later awarded the Padma Shri, was the person who brought the scam to light.  

When this scam was exposed, the stock markets went into freefall. This scam had swindled at least Rs 40 billion from the Indian banking system, making it not only one of the most intelligent crimes committed in India but also one of the most expensive crimes committed anywhere in the world. Harshad Mehta was arrested in December 2001 and died in Thane prison as a result of a heart condition. He had a total of 28 cases filed against him at the time of his arrest. 

• Unknown Indian hacker (the perpetrator of the world’s largest cybercrime) 

In 2008, an unknown Indian hacker was arrested and charged with the largest cybercrime in history. The man was accused of aiding a criminal gang in hacking into the identities of an estimated eight million people in a hacking raid that could have resulted in a net worth of more than £2.8 billion in illegal funds. Using an underground network operated by the Russian mafia, he was able to breach the IT defenses of the Best Western Hotel group’s online booking system in the United Kingdom and sell the information on how to get into the system.  

Data exposed in the breach included a variety of private information, including home addresses and telephone numbers, as well as credit card information and employment information. The Sunday Herald newspaper in Scotland discovered the flaw and alerted the hotel’s management, who were able to close the security breach in time, but the stolen information was already being exploited by cybercriminals at the time. 
It has not been possible to determine the identity of the original Indian hacker, confirming the event’s status as one of the most intelligent crimes committed in India to date. 

• The Burglary at the Sydney Opera House 

In March 1987, Mohan Singh pretended to be a CBI agent and conducted a raid on Opera House, Mumbai’s most exclusive jewelry store at the time.  He decamped with several pieces of jewelry, leaving behind his “CBI” team and his belongings. The team itself had been selected by Mohan Singh in an interview after a classified advertisement for Intelligence Officers and Security Officers had been placed in “The Times of India.” The participants were completely unaware that he was a master con artist, and they remained in the dark until the very end.  

The Mumbai police issued a nationwide alert in an attempt to apprehend Mohan Singh but were unsuccessful. Authorities recognized it as the perfect crime, making it one of the most intelligent crimes committed in India, according to investigators. Despite the fact that the Bollywood film “Special26” was inspired by this criminal incident in real life, the robbery was carried out by a single individual rather than by a gang of four people as depicted in the film. 
 

• Natwarlal, also known as Mr. Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava, is considered to be India’s most skilled con artist. 

Natwarlal is regarded as a legendary figure in India, with a statue dedicated to him in his hometown of Bihar. A man who has inspired fraudsters all over the country and used more than 50 aliases to disguise himself, Natwarlal is regarded as a legendary figure in India with a statue dedicated to him in his hometown of Bihar. It was Natwatlal who sold the Taj Mahal several times, along with the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and even the Parliament of India, which included 545 sitting members, including Indira Gandhi at the time, who was then the Prime Minister of India.  

Since he had more than 50 aliases to choose from, he was known as “the master of disguise.”  

Aside from that, he was an expert at forging the signatures of well-known people. He is accused of forging the signature of India’s first president, Rajendra Prasad, and defrauding a number of industrialists, including the Tatas, the Ambanis, and the Birlas, of millions of dollars in investments. He is also accused of defrauding a large number of shopkeepers out of lakhs of rupees by issuing them forged cheques and demanding draughts. 

He was convicted in 14 cases and sentenced to 113 years in prison; however, he was able to evade capture on each occasion and escape. He was apprehended for the last time in1996 when he was 84 years old, but he managed to elude capture once more. His crimes were without a doubt the most intelligent ever committed in India. 

• Abdul Karim Telgi’s Stamp Paper Scam is number five on the list. 

 
A scam involving stamp paper, perpetrated by Abdul Karim Telgi, was one of the largest ever perpetrated in Indian history, with a total value of approximately Rs. 600 billion. The crime was extremely well planned and executed with the utmost sophistication and planning, and it is still regarded as one of the most astutely executed crimes in the history of India. 

 
Using counterfeit stamp paper, Telgi made money. He hired 300 people to act as agents, who sold the counterfeits to large-scale purchasers such as financial institutions, insurance companies, and stock brokerage firms. 

References:

• https://www.scrolldroll.com/most-intelligent-crimes-committed-in-india/
• https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/7-of-the-most-intelligent-crimes-ever-committed-by-indians-246808.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harshad_Mehta
• https://indiankanoon.org/doc/574419/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natwarlal

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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