A sea-facing apartment in Juhu, previously associated with the late stockbroker and convicted financial fraudster Harshad Mehta, has been put up for auction by a special court handling securities-related offences. The auction comes decades after Mehta’s infamous ₹700-crore securities scam shook India’s stock market in the early 1990s.
The apartment is located on the second floor of the Vandana Cooperative Housing Society, within the Janki Kutir compound, an upscale area of Juhu known for its iconic Prithvi Theatre and sea-facing residences. The flat has a super built-up area of 1,150 square feet and will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis, meaning buyers will acquire it in its current condition, as approved by the special court on October 10, 2025.
Previously, the flat was owned by the late Sushila Shah, a partner in Romil Exports and a “judgment debtor” of Orion Travels, a company in which Harshad Mehta and his brother Ashwin Mehta were partners. Under Indian law, a judgment debtor is a person or entity obligated to pay a sum determined by a court.
A public notice on invited bids from interested buyers. Real estate insiders reveal that the price for an unencumbered apartment in this building is around ₹45,000–₹50,000 per square foot, which is indicative of both the locality and the sea-facing view. The property has not only been marketed this time; the auctions in 2021, 2023, and earlier this year were all met with a lack of response.
It was a complex financial game that Harshad Mehta, the "Big Bull" of Dalal Street, played and won, at the same time. He created fake bank receipts and forged cheques and used the money taken from the banks without their knowledge to invest in a few stocks. In this way, their prices were artificially raised. The crash of the market which followed his scheme was of enormous proportions; with the savings of thousands of small investors being erased.
Authorities went on the offensive after the scam and seized the assets of Mehta, among which were the eight sea-facing apartments in the Madhuli area of Worli, measuring in total approximately 12,600 square feet. In 2009, these flats were bought by Ashok Samani, a stockbroker from Mumbai, for ₹32.6 crore.
Mehta was indicted on 27 criminal charges and found guilty in four, but he died of a heart attack in 2001 while he was in prison. The Juhu flat going up for sale at the auction is one of the few high-profile assets of the notorious stockbroker that are left, and thus, it is attracting the attention of both the investors and the real estate enthusiasts.
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