The CID crime department has filed a case against fifteen people in connection with a noteworthy stock broking scam that was discovered in Surat. A Zerodha named Kishan Soni is suspected of setting up fictitious Demat and trading accounts on the brokerage platform as part of the purported scam.

Over the course of two years, Soni, a former personal client associate of Zerodha, opened an astounding 432 accounts. He was paid commissions at first for opening these accounts, but the business eventually found out that a large number of them were bogus.

Fourteen people from Bihar were implicated in the scam, managing the accounts and conducting trading activities after fake documents were used to open the accounts. Soni and his friends are accused of pocketing large sums of money through a series of "iceberg trades," in which tiny deals were spread across numerous accounts to generate huge brokerage fees.

According to an audit, the scheme caused Rs 2.20 crore in tax and GST avoidance, making the total fraud amount to Rs 2.75 crore. When Zerodha observed that many accounts had debit balances and the account owner denied ever opening them, the scam was discovered.

The scam cost the accounts affected between Rs 70,000 and Rs 72,000 in losses. The accused is being investigated by the CID criminal branch, which is also taking the accused to court.