THE King last week cancelled the honour of Anantkumar Meghji Pethraj Shah, co-founder of the Meghraj Group, stripping him of the OBE he was awarded in 2020.
The Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood confirmed last Thursday (5) that the King had directed Shah’s appointment as an Officer of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire to be “cancelled and annulled” and his name erased from the Register of the Order.
The Cabinet Office declined to give reasons. “We do not comment on individual honours,” a spokesperson told Eastern Eye.
Shah, who was born in Nairobi and educated in London, received the honour from the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to education, health and animal welfare. He had been a trustee and patron of charities including Trees for Cities, iPartner India and the Animal Interfaith Alliance.
Shah co-founded the group’s financial services arm with his brother Vipin in 1973. In 2024, the high court declared Shah bankrupt, after he expressed his inability to pay pension dues owed to former staff of Meghraj Bank, which closed in 2000.
