[Resolved]  Kotak Securities — top management is shielding the branch manager who caused me loss or Rs 16 lakhs

I have a serious complaint against the top management of Kotak Securities which is shielding its branch manager, who caused me a total loss of Rs 16 lakhs in a span of four months during 2013.

I am Ramesh Ramanan, current demat online trading account holder with Kotak Securities Ltd., for past 9 years, investing only in the stocks in cash segment on NSE and BSE. I resigned my job in Mumbai |& settled down in Chennai to take care of aged my parents. In June 2013, I was introduced to Mr. D. Rajan, branch manager of Kotak Securities Ltd., Tiruvanmiyur Branch, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, by a staff member of same branch. Initially, Mr. Rajan pretended to be very friendly with me, assuring that he would take care of my investments. I had told him that I did not know anything about futures & options trading, that my investments in stocks were my only lifetime savings & that I could not take losses. I had also told him very clearly that I would not be getting any pensions from my last job. He used to repeatedly assure me: “Do not worry. I will guide you every step of the way. There will not be any losses. I will ensure that your investments will grow well and I will take very good care of your investments.” He sent an office boy to collect my signature on the futures trading documents.

Though he made profitable transactions intially, very often, he would get my login access code and id and then, he himself would log into my account using his laptop or his office computer after asking me to log out of my account & place buy & sell orders. He totally messed up all my investments, causing me huge financial losses amounting to Rs 16 lakhs, even after considering all the marginal gains tht he had made for my account, by placing highly deflated sell orders at lower levels |& buying them back, only at much higher prices, not allowing me to cover shorts at lower levels. He often cancelled many orders I had placed, substituting them with his own orders. He used to keep pestering me to confirm that I had placed orders as per his directions. Because of all this, I have suffered severe mental agony & mental depressions.

He made unauthorized transactions in my online trading account and misused trust, pestered and made me sell 5390 shares of Suprajit Engineering Ltd., and 35 shares of Aditya Birla Nuvo, which I had in my existing portfolio with Kotak Securities Ltd., saying they would fall to much lower levels and we could buy back at that level. I trusted this person and gave him my login id access code, which he misused and shorted heavily on F & O trading, causing me heavy losses, wiping out almost completely savings of my hard-earned lifetime. Unfortunately, I do not have documentary evidence against him. The top management of Kotak Securities Ltd., seems to be shielding him against me, as he may have strong political clout. My repeated complaints to [protected]@kotak.com (Mr. Uday Vice-Chairman of Kotak Securities Ltd., two Joint MDs (Mr. C. Jayaram (jmd.[protected]@kotak.com and Mr. Deepak Gupta-jmd.[protected]@kotak.com) and customer service emails) have not got any positive results over a two-month period from 15th october 2013 till now.

Major Stocks which Mr. Rajan shorted misusing my account in August 2013: Financial Technologies and Ranbaxy. He bought them back at much higher prices on his office computer/laptop.

During September 2013: Mr. Rajan made me short 500 Axis Bank Futures at 946, 500 ICICI BANK Futures at 976 and 1000 Tata Motors futures @ 319. He did not allow me to buy these back at lower levels, when the opportunity arose, laughing at me, saying they will fall to much lower levels and we will cover it then. He silently bought back 250 Axis Bank [protected]@1160 on his office computer/laptop, using my access code, which I had given him in good faith, without informing me before. He also made me buyback 500 ICICI Bank futures at 976, 250 Axis Bank Futures at 1038 and 1000 Tata Motors @ 338. He also made me buy 1000 Ranbaxy [protected]@29, 9200 Bank [protected]@average of Rs 53 & 2900 [protected]@average price of Rs 25. All of these were left unsold, as Mr. Rajan did not allow me to sell them till the end of the expiry.

After I sent an email to [protected]@kotak.com (Mr. Uday Kotak-Vice-chairman), jmd.[protected]@kotak.com (Mr. C. Jayaram) and jmd.[protected]@kotak.com (Mr. Deepak Gupta), stating that I will be taking up the matter further with the SEBI, NSE and BSE on 3rd December 2013, Mr. Sundar, a representative of the T.Nagar branch of Kotak Securities Ltd., called me on my land line phone on 4th December 2013 and he and another representative of Kotak Securities Ltd., T. Nagar, Branch, Chennai, visited me at my residence on Friday 6th December 2013 to take my statement and file a report to the head office. They pretentiously assured me that "we belong to a good group and you will definitely get justice." They said that it would take two weeks for the head office to act upon the report filed by them on the basis of my statement to them.

Two weeks later, Mr. Sundar called me to his office and when I met him at his office in T. Nagar, he told me that the head office was willing to compensate me only to the extent of Rs 20, 000, even though I had clearly told both of them and the top management through many emails that the total loss caused by Mr. Rajan's misdeeds amounted to more than Rs 16 lakhs.

This is totally unbecoming and unethical on the part of a company of the stature of Kotak Securities Ltd., which is shielding a crooked branch manager and not forcing him to pay up for his misdeeds, which has wiped off more than 90% of my hard-earned savings of a life-time. I really regret the day I opened an online trading account with them. I still use their trading platform, as some of my investments are stuck with them.

I learn that they have transferred him to another branch. I had also complained about Kotak Securities Ltd., to SEBI online and received the only response that they seem to be capable of, that is I should contact the stock broker, that is, Kotak Securities Ltd., in whose integrity I have no faith at all whatsoever. I trusted Kotak Securities Ltd., to be a high class stock broking company and opened an online trading account with it. I regret the day I did that, because the company is full of scheming and manipulating people, who will go all out to shield their branch manager, just because they do not want me to be compensated. Hence, I request your urgent personal intervention in the matter to resolve the issue satisfactorily. Thanking you in advance, Ramesh Ramanan.