IGF welcomes CBI action on IPO scam

Mumbai, Feb 22 (UNI) Investors' Grievances Forum (IGF) president Kirit Somaiya today welcomed the intervention of CBI in the IPO-demat scam and reiterated his demand for the appointment of a task force to ''handle the biggest IPO scam in India.'' Mr Somaiya also drew attention to the statement of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram that the scam was not limited only to two companies (IDFC and Yes Bank) and pointed out that ''53 IPOs have been manipulated during the last 18 months, cornering five crore shares.'' Earlier, several brokers and stock market intermediaries were raided in the day by CBI officials in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad following their alleged involvement in illegal way of cornering of retail category shares during the initial public offers (IPOs) of Yes Bank and IDFC.

Confirming the raids, CBI sources said searches were conducted at 21 places, including five in Mumbai, 15 in Ahmedabad and one in Delhi.

The searches were conducted after the case was registered by the Bank Fraud and Securities Cell (BF&SC) of the CBI following a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

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