The number of cases probed by market regulator SEBI saw a sharp spike of 84 per cent to 245 in 2016-17, mainly because of references received from the Income Tax Department.
Most of the cases were related to market manipulation, price rigging, insider-trading and takeover violations.
During 2016-17, as many as 245 new cases were taken up for investigation compared to 133 fresh ones in the preceding fiscal, according to SEBI’s annual report.
Besides, the investigation has been completed in 155 matters last fiscal compared to 123 in 2015-16.
I-T Dept’s reference
“There was a comparative increase in the number of cases taken up during 2016-17, mainly due to the references received from the Department of Income Tax in the matter of long-term capital gain and short term capital loss in various scrips,” the regulator noted.
In the past fiscal, 76 per cent (185 out of 245) of the cases taken up for investigation pertained to market manipulation and price rigging. Also, insider-trading and takeover violation cases accounted for 14 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.