WhatsApp investigation by SEBI gathers steam

Scores of Indian securities officials raided on the homes of brokers and related businessmen on Friday, 22^nd Dec. in a wide reaching early morning raid in Mumbai, and some other cities.

Raids by The Securities and Exchange Board of India, can be taken as a signal that the probe is gathering high pitch on a national scale. The investigation is being carried out to try to find out who exactly was responsible for circulating those messages about a few major Indian companies’ classified corporate announcements in social media chats.

On Friday, 22^nd Dec more than 70 officials of SEBI searched the homes of various traders and brokers and seized their property, including their mobile phones and laptops.

The investigation was kick started in the previous month when 12 different messages about predicted results and other classified financial information about the companies came into circulation in a few private WhatsApp groups. These social media groups consisted mainly of businessmen like, traders and brokers.

The teams reviewed transcripts from some WhatsApp groups and documented at least the chats where the previously mentioned messages about prominent companies’ classified financial information. According to a report, more than thirty premises of various brokers and dealers were searched.

Vikram Limaye, who is the current chief executive of the National Stock Exchange, has said in an interview last week that, Stock exchanges are cooperating completely with SEBI and having a separate investigation about the matter.

According to a report, last month, sources familiar with the raids and ongoing investigations by SEBI said that ithad also asked and investigated about the trading data on the previously mentioned companies.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has in recent years have widened the scope of the internal trading rules and expanded the perimeter on what information is considered to be an “unpublished price-sensitive information”.

-Archit