Haridas Mundhra (Hindi: हरिदास मूंदड़ा; died January 6, 2018) was a Calcutta-based stock speculator who was found guilty and imprisoned in the first big financial scandal of newly independent India in the 1950s.
[4][5] The irregularity was highlighted in 1958 by Feroze Gandhi of the Indian National Congress party, who represented the Rae Bareli seat in the Parliament of India.
Nehru, as the leader of the ruling Congress party, wished to have the LIC matter handled quietly since it might show the government in a poor light.
[6] However, Feroze Gandhi was the primary force behind an anti-corruption movement that in 1956 resulted in imprisonment of one of India's wealthiest men, Ram Kishan Dalmia, for defrauding his life insurance company.
Feroze Gandhi had married Indira Nehru over Jawaharlal's initial objections; she had gotten him to agree to the marriage, and relations between the men were cordial.
Standing from the treasury benches, he asked the government whether the newly formed Life Insurance Corporation had used premiums from 5.5 million life-insurance policyholders to buy up shares at above-market prices in the companies controlled by a notorious stock speculator, Haridas Mundhra.
[6] Justice Chagla determined that the Finance Secretary, Haribhai M. Patel, along with two LIC officials, L S Vaidyanathan,[12] may have colluded on the payment and should be investigated.
A subsequent inquiry committee headed by Retired Justice Vivian Bose cleared the names of two civil servants but passed strictures against the finance minister for "lying".
[6] In recent times, Mundhra is often noted as the forerunner of other financial scamsters of modern India, including Harshad Mehta and Abdul Karim Telgi, who also operated with considerable political connivance.
However, unlike in the Mundhra case, the government response in appointing an honest and competent judge, and also the judicial investigation (24 days of public hearings), has been far from transparent.