India markets regulator says probing ‘pump and dump' instances
India's markets regulator said on Friday that it found 'incriminating evidence' as a part of its ongoing investigation into 'pump and dump' practices involving certain stocks.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it conducted search and seizure operations in multiple locations this month, but did not name any specific sites or companies involved.
'Pump and dump' refers to a stock manipulation practice in which market participants artificially inflate share prices through continuous purchases, luring other investors to buy in, and then sell their shares at higher prices to realise profits.
Financials, metals lift Indian benchmarks to weekly gains as geopolitical, trade fears ease
Local business news website Moneycontrol reported last week, citing sources, that SEBI carried out raids in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and the northern hub of Gurugram to crack down on a pump and dump scheme worth more than 3 billion rupees ($35.1 million).
The raids reportedly involved 15 to 20 shell firms. At least two listed agro-tech companies and their promoters are allegedly at the helm of the network, according to the Moneycontrol report.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
India markets regulator says probing ‘pump and dump' instances
India's markets regulator said on Friday that it found 'incriminating evidence' as a part of its ongoing investigation into 'pump and dump' practices involving certain stocks. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it conducted search and seizure operations in multiple locations this month, but did not name any specific sites or companies involved. 'Pump and dump' refers to a stock manipulation practice in which market participants artificially inflate share prices through continuous purchases, luring other investors to buy in, and then sell their shares at higher prices to realise profits. Financials, metals lift Indian benchmarks to weekly gains as geopolitical, trade fears ease Local business news website Moneycontrol reported last week, citing sources, that SEBI carried out raids in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and the northern hub of Gurugram to crack down on a pump and dump scheme worth more than 3 billion rupees ($35.1 million). The raids reportedly involved 15 to 20 shell firms. At least two listed agro-tech companies and their promoters are allegedly at the helm of the network, according to the Moneycontrol report.
Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
India accused of illegal deportations targeting Muslims
NEW DELHI: India has deported without trial to Bangladesh hundreds of people, officials from both sides said, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who call the recent expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling. New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants. The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hardline stance on immigration – particularly those from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh – with top officials referring to them as 'termites' and 'infiltrators'. It has also sparked fear among India's estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, a widely spoken language in both eastern India and Bangladesh. 'Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified,' said veteran Indian rights activist Harsh Mander. 'You have thrown millions into this existential fear.' Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka's government, a former friend of India. But India also ramped up operations against migrants after a wider security crackdown in the wake of an attack in the west – the April 22 killing of 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed that attack on Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected, with arguments culminating in a four-day conflict that left more than 70 dead. Indian authorities launched an unprecedented countrywide security drive that has seen many thousands detained – and many of them eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh at gunpoint. 'Do not dare' Rahima Begum, from India's eastern Assam state, said police detained her for several days in late May before taking her to the Bangladesh frontier. She said she and her family had spent their life in India. 'I have lived all my life here – my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here,' she said. 'I don't know why they would do this to me.' India arrests three after student gang-rape in Kolkata Indian police took Begum, along with five other people, all Muslims, and forced them into swampland in the dark. 'They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there,' she told AFP. 'They said: 'Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.'' Bangladeshi locals who found the group then handed them to border police who 'thrashed' them and ordered they return to India, Begum said. 'As we approached the border, there was firing from the other side,' said the 50-year-old. 'We thought: 'This is the end. We are all going to die.'' She survived, and, a week after she was first picked up, she was dropped back home in Assam with a warning to keep quiet. 'Ideological hate campaign' Rights activists and lawyers criticised India's drive as 'lawless'. 'You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them,' said New Delhi-based civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde. Indian law does not allow for people to be deported without due process, he added. Bangladesh has said India has pushed more than 1,600 people across its border since May. Indian media suggests the number could be as high as 2,500. The Bangladesh Border Guards said it has sent back 100 of those pushed across – because they were Indian citizens. India has been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation. Many of those targeted in the campaign are low-wage labourers in states governed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to rights activists. Indian authorities did not respond to questions about the number of people detained and deported. But Assam state's chief minister has said that more than 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh. Separately, Gujarat's police chief said more than 6,500 people have been rounded up in the western state, home to both Modi and interior minister Amit Shah. Many of those were reported to be Bengali-speaking Indians and later released. 'People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign,' said Mander, the activist. Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was picked up by police in the financial hub of Mumbai, flown on a military aircraft to the border state of Tripura and pushed into Bangladesh. He managed to cross back, and is now back in India's West Bengal state, where he said he was born. 'The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians,' said Mondal, adding he is now scared to even go out to seek work. 'I showed them my government-issued ID, but they just would not listen.'
Business Recorder
8 hours ago
- Business Recorder
India arrests three after student gang-rape in Kolkata
NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested three men accused of gang raping a law student in Kolkata, officials said Friday, a case that has reignited anger in a city still scarred by the rape and murder of a doctor last year. The survivor said she was assaulted on Wednesday evening inside a room on the college premises, Indian media reported, with the three accused including two current and one former student. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the ruling party in West Bengal state, said the 'full weight of the law will be brought to bear'. The case again highlights the chronic issue of sexual violence in the world's most populous country, where an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022. It has also sparked fresh political clashes between the AITC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP accused the AITC-led state government of failing to protect women. West Bengal had become a 'breeding ground for crimes against women', the BJP said in a statement. 'State machinery continues to fail its daughters'. The AITC rejected the accusations. Indian police arrest four people for cricket fans stampede The assault comes after a Kolkata court in January sentenced the rapist and murderer of a 31-year-old doctor to life in prison. Her killing in August 2024 at a state-run hospital in Kolkata triggered protests, with candlelight marches and nationwide outrage over the continuing violence against women. The brutality of that attack drew comparisons to the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi, a crime that shocked the country and led to widespread demonstrations.
