‘Not unjust enrichment’: how a Mumbai trader turned stock broker’s technical glitch into Rs 1.75-crore profit

Rajguru later made profits of Rs 2.38 crore, leading to a net gain of Rs 1.75 crore (Source: Pixabay)

A technical glitch at Kotak Securities has turned into a Rs 1.75- crore jackpot for a trader. The Bombay High Court recently ruled that the trader, Gajanan Rajguru, is entitled to keep the profit, holding that it does not amount to “unjust enrichment”.

The case dates back to 2022, when Gajanan Rajguru was mistakenly credited with margin money worth nearly Rs 40 crore by Kotak Securities due to a technical error in its systems. According to The Economic Times, Rajguru used the margin within about 20 minutes to execute trades in the stock market.

Initially, the trades resulted in a loss of Rs 54 lakh. However, Rajguru later made profits of Rs 2.38 crore, leading to a net gain of Rs 1.75 crore. After identifying the error, Kotak Securities reversed the Rs 40 crore margin credit but also demanded that Rajguru return the profits earned from the trades, the report added.

In a ruling delivered in December 2025, the high court rejected Kotak Securities’ claim and allowed Rajguru to retain the Rs 1.75-crore profit. The court held that profits made using accidentally provided margin money due to a broker’s technical glitch cannot automatically be classified as “unjust enrichment”.

Kotak Securities argued that since the margin was mistakenly credited, any profits generated using that margin should belong to the firm. The court, however, dismissed this argument, noting that the margin credit did not itself guarantee profits.

According to the report, the court observed that Rajguru had taken market risk and applied his own trading skills. It further pointed out that Kotak Securities had not suffered any financial loss as a result of the erroneous margin credit. Instead, the court said the firm was attempting to “unjustly appropriate” the trader’s profits on the “specious ground” that the trades were executed using its margin.

Kotak Securities has appealed against the ruling. According to Moneycontrol, the next hearing in the case is scheduled for February 4.