Mumbai, Sept. 27 :     Harshad Mehta, the stockbroker whose shenanigans seven years ago triggered the biggest securities scandal in the country, has been convicted along with three others for misappropriating Rs 38.97 crore from car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd between April 1989 and May 1991. The verdict, delivered today by special court judge M.S. Rane in a jampacked court-room, is the first that directly implicates Mehta who earned the moniker of Big Bull after ramping up shares in early 1992. The others convicted along with Mehta were Pramod Kumar Manocha, former deputy finance manager of Maruti Udyog, Vinayak Narayan Deosthali, former assistant manager of United Commercial Bank, and Ram Narayan Popali, former officer of ANZ Grindlays Bank. Ambuj Jain, former senior executive of Maruti Udyog, was exonerated. Justice Rane is expected to announce the sentence tomorrow after hearing all the parties. Mehta could face a prison sentence of seven to nine years. Shares on the Bombay stock exchange plunged after news of Mehta?s conviction spread through the market. Early in the day, the 30-scrip sensitive index had soared 113 points to 4871.34 points from Friday?s close of 4757.82, but tumbled to 4715.67 at close. Mehta was suspended from trading after the stock bubble burst in April 1992 but dealers say brokers loyal to Mehta have been trading on his behalf. This is only the second verdict delivered by the special court that was set up to hear the 44 scam-related cases. Earlier this year, the court had convicted Hiten Dalal in another case. The Supreme Court has already granted Dalal a stay on the sentence while he appeals against the conviction. Harshad Mehta and his lawyers led by Mahesh Jethmalani are also likely to appeal to the Supreme Court. According to the special court, the accused were found guilty of entering into a criminal conspiracy in Bombay and Delhi in order to divert surplus Maruti Udyog funds lying in its account with Canara Bank, Sansad Marg branch in Delhi to Harshad Mehta?s account with ANZ Grindlays Bank, New Delhi. Last July, the court had ordered a CBI probe into Mehta?s claim that he had paid huge amounts of money as donation to Congress bigwigs. Mehta claimed that he had instructed his manager in Delhi, Mohan Kandelwal, who turned approver in the case, to withdraw the amount from the bank to make the payments. Justice Rane had said the probe was necessary to determine where every single rupee of public money diverted by the alleged scamster had gone. However, the judge ruled that the CBI probe would be independent of the outcome of the MUL case.