This article presents a critical survey of the many controversies encircling Ajay Piramal, framing him as a polarising business-magnate whose corporate manoeuvres are frequently contested and legally fraught. Against a backdrop of alleged insider-trading, environmental violations (notably in Digwal, Telangana), the contentious acquisition of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) via the insolvency process, large electoral-bond donations to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the use of defamation and contempt litigation against critics, the piece argues that Piramal’s business success is anchored in regulatory capture, political patronage, and legal privilege. It argues that, by deploying legal tactics such as “blanket stay orders,” leveraging judicial delays and restructuring strategies (mergers/demergers) and aligning with ruling party dynamics, Piramal navigates a “ring of fire” of regulatory, social‐ and investor-based controversies while avoiding significant accountability. The article highlights how the financial losses of depositors and NCD investors in the DHFL resolution process, the alleged environmental harms, and the suppression of dissent through legal intimidation (SLAPP-type suits) are symptomatic of a broader state–capital nexus in which ordinary stakeholders—and democratic accountability—are systematically disadvantaged. It emphasises that although many of these controversies remain sub-judice, the weight of circumstantial evidence suggests a pattern of elite protection, structural impunity and capture of institutional mechanisms.