Anchor Group’s Hemang Shah released by Bombay HC in case stemming from family dispute

The Bombay High Court on late Friday night, directed the release of Hemang Jadavji Shah, Anchor Group director, observing that the arrest by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police earlier this month was ‘illegal’.

The division bench of Justice Gauri Godse and Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan, while declaring the arrest illegal and unnecessary, ordered his immediate release.

“We did not find any such tearing hurry to initiate action to take the petitioner into custody with such zeal and enthusiasm,” the court observed in its 27-page detailed order. “...there is a violation of the petitioner’s right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” observed the court.


The genesis of the dispute lies in the complaint filed by Shah’s brother, Mehul and their father at the Economic Offence Wing (EoW) at Malabar Hill Police Station, regarding certain alleged financial misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

The complaint filed at the EoW alleged financial transactions were undertaken between 2020 and 2025 under the garb of investments in mutual funds to seek higher returns.

Senior Advocate Ravi Prakash, along with Munaf Virjee, Managing Partner of AMR Law, appeared for Hemang Shah and argued before the court that the arrest of the petitioner was illegal in the facts and circumstances of this present case and violates the fundamental rights of the petitioner under Article 22 (2) of the Constitution of India.

The Shah family-owned Anchor Group launched GreatWhite switches to challenge a brand it created four decades ago and sold to Panasonic (then Matsushita Electric Works) for Rs 2,000 crore in 2007.

Started in 1963 by Shah brothers Damjibhai and Jadavjibhai, is now managed by their sons. Late Damjibhai’s sons, Atul and Sanjay, handle Anchor Health & Beauty Care and Jadavjibhai’s sons, Mehul and Hemang, oversee businesses such as real estate, paints and writing instruments.