Things started getting even stranger when he finally reached the spot with his team.

The entire
'CBI team' was still there. The only one missing, was their leader - Mohan Singh. It wasn't even a
CBI team, they were just team members who thought they were getting a job! Mohan had met
the team members after placing a classified ad in The Times Of India asking for "Dynamic
Graduates for Intelligence Officers Post and Security Officers Post". Applicants were told to
come to Taj Intercontinental between 10 am and 5 pm for an interview. Twenty six were finally
selected, some of whom were already working in government jobs, looking for a better job. The
next day, these twenty six were asked to report at 11 in the morning where Mohan would hand
them their fake identity cards. An hour later, Singh got them boarded on a bus and took them for
a 'trial raid'.
They must've passed with flying colours because it did look like an actual raid. Singh had then
gone around the showcases picking up jewellery as 'samples'. They were placed in poly bags and
stapled with slips showing a government seal.
Now for the exit. Singh told the staff to wait while he checked out another shop in the vicinity.
He then got in the bus, went back to the hotel, checked out, and vanished. He left no trail behind.
A crime so perfect, you end up respecting the culprit. Mohan Singh, or whatever his name might
be, is yet to be caught. Genius.

5. Ketan Parekh

businessbaatein.files.wordpress.com
Ketan Parekh not only got the stock market to crash, but he also single handedly managed to
affect the lives of a lot of people by taking away most, if not all, of their savings. By the end of
March 2001, at least eight people were reported to have committed suicide and hundreds of
investors were driven to the brink of bankruptcy. The CBI arrested Ketan Parekh who was held
responsible for single-handedly getting the market to crash by 171 points. Parekh was also
charged with defrauding Bank of India (BoI) of about $30 million among other charges. His
arrest resulted in another 147 point drop in the market. But how did he do it?
Known as the Bombay Bull, he had connections with movie stars, politicians and even leading
international entrepreneurs like Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer, who partnered Ketan
Parekh in Ketan Parekh Ventures, a $250 million venture capital fund that invested mainly in
new economy companies. Over the years, Ketan Parekh built a network of companies, mainly in
Mumbai, involved in stock market operations.
The dotcom boom of 1999 contributed to the 'Bull Run' led by an upward trend in the NASDAQ
.The companies in which Ketan Parekh held stakes included Amitabh Bachchan Corporation
Limited (ABCL), Mukta Arts, Tips and Pritish Nandy Communications. He also had stakes in
HFCL, Global Telesystems (Global), Zee Telefilms, Crest Communications, and PentaMedia
Graphics. Parekh selected these companies for investment with help from his research team,

which listed high growth companies with a small capital base. He took advantage of low
liquidity in these stocks, which eventually came to be known as the K-10 stocks. The shares
were held through Ketan Parekhs company, Triumph International. In July 1999, he held around
1.2 million shares in Global. He also controlled around 16% of Globals floating stock, 25% of
Aftek Infosys, and 15% each in Zee and HFCL. The buoyant stock markets from January to July
1999 helped the K-10 stocks increase in value substantially. HFCL soared by 57% while Global
increased by 200%. As a result, brokers and fund managers started investing heavily in K-10
stocks. Mutual funds like Alliance Capital, ICICI Prudential Fund and UTI also invested in K-10
stocks, and saw their net asset value soaring. By January 2000, K-10 stocks regularly featured in
the top five traded stocks in the exchanges (Refer Exhibit II for the price movements of K-10
stocks). HFCLs traded volumes shot up from 80,000 to 1,047,000 shares. Globes total traded
value in the Sensex was 51.8 billion. As such huge amounts of money were being pumped into
the markets, it became tough for Parekh to control the movements of the scrips. Also, it was
reported that the volumes got too big for him to handle. Analysts and regulators wondered how
he had managed to buy such large stakes.