Harshad Mehta was an Indian stockbroker who orchestrated one of the largest securities scams in 1992 in India. He used ready forward deals and fake bank receipts to swindle banks of Rs. 4000 crore. When journalist Sucheta Dalal exposed the scam in April 1992, it had major impacts like a bribery case against the then Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao and regulatory actions were taken against Mehta, who was later charged with 72 criminal offenses and more than 600 civil suits. The scam led to a hold on the ongoing economic liberalization in India.