Mumbai-based registrar Datamatics, which handles share transfers for leading Indian corporates, has filed numerous complaints for misplaced share certificates with the MIDC police station at Andheri.
Senior MIDC police officials expressed concern as Datamatics has filed the cases for misplaced rather than stolen shares.
The maximum number of complaints filed by Datamatics relate to the UTI Mastergain 92 scheme, police sources said. They were not in a position to provide details as the complaints were filed at separate stages.
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Datamatics managing director YS Kanodia said: We have kept the UTI and stock exchanges informed about these by sending regular detailed information on complaints filed by us with the police.
According to independent data available, for the UTI Mastergain scheme, Datamatics has lodged complaints with the police for 8,900 share certificates through 9 complaints for fake, forged shares. In the case of misplaced shares, 36 complaints have been filed for 14,764 share certificates.
The police are reportedly helpless as most of the complaints have been filed for misplaced shares. Hence investigation into the case is also not possible.
For taking up any investigation it requires an FIR to be filed, said an inspector at the MIDC police station.
The shares purchased by UTI were sent to Datamatics for cancellation through its custodian Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL) which received the shares from brokers on behalf of UTI.
When asked why Datamatics had filed several cases for shares being misplaced instead of stolen, Kanodia said they were not sure whether the share certificates sent to them by SHCIL were lost during transit or were stolen from their custody.
Since the number of Mastergain certificates are in lakhs, physical checking becomes difficult, he said.
Police sources have queried how Datamatics could provide the exact details of share certificates misplaced from its custody from lakhs of Mastergain certificates if the physical checking exercise was difficult.
Datamatics is the registrar for many companies like Eurotex and JB Chemicals, besides handling work for the Unit Trust of India.
The maximum number of complaints filed by Datamatics relate to the UTI Mastergain 92 scheme, police sources said