Anil Ambani identifies rogue brokers, seeks Sebi action

The Anil Ambani group on Friday said that it has identified the stockbrokers behind the spread of malicious rumours and 'baseless sensational charges' against it and sought immediate action by the Securities and Exchange Board of India against the perpetrators.

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group said these brokers were sending out mass emails and SMSes and were also making large-scale voice calls with baseless and sensational charges against its firms.

Stocks of various companies belonging to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group have fallen sharply in the past few weeks and the group has blamed corporate rivals, a cartel of stock market manipulators and 'rumour mongering' for this heavy sell-off.

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While the group has already sought an investigation by Sebi, the stock exchanges and investigation agencies into the matter, it said in a fresh statement today that it has "identified stockbrokers sending mass e-mails/SMS/voice calls with baseless sensational charges against ADA Group."

While the group did not name the brokers in its statement, the names and other details about their suspicious activities have been submitted to Sebi.

"These brokers (are) guilty of blatant violation of Sebi (FUTP) Regulations," the group said. These regulations relate to Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to the securities market.

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The group said that it was "bringing matter to immediate attention of Sebi/cyber crime/police for seizure of electronic and dealing room records."

It also sought a "full-fledged SEBI investigation and punitive interim orders against guilty brokers".

Stocks of the group firms plummeted further on Friday after regaining some of the ground lost over the past few weeks on Thursday.

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The group's telecom arm, Reliance Communications, was trading over 4.5 per cent down, while Reliance Power was down over 3.4 per cent.

In addition, Reliance Infra, Reliance Broadcast, Reliance Capital and Reliance Media Works were also down over 2 per cent each.

Hit hard by the steep decline in its group stocks, the group had on Thursday blamed 'corporate rivals' and a cartel of market manipulators for causing panic among investors.

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Seeking to assuage the concerns of its over 11 million investors, the group also said it was a victim of an illegal bear cartel that destroyed over Rs 3,00,000 crore (Rs 3 trillion) in market value for the infrastructure sector in the past few weeks.

The comments came a day after the group stocks fell by up to 19 per cent, causing a market value loss of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) in a single day on February 9.

The group stocks bounced back on Thursday, but could only regain a small part of the value lost over the past few weeks.