Sebi takes up 402 investigation cases in FY26; completes 338

Capital markets regulator Sebi took up 402 cases for investigation during 2025-26 for various violations of securities laws, including insider trading, market manipulation and financial statement fraud, according to its latest annual report.

Of the total cases taken up, the regulator completed investigations in 338 cases during the financial year.

Fraudulent and unfair trade practices remained a key area of regulatory scrutiny, with Sebi taking up 121 cases during 2025-26 and completing 94 investigations.


Within this category, the regulator initiated investigations into 72 cases of price and volume manipulation, up from 61 cases in the preceding fiscal. It completed 43 such cases during the year.

Further, 49 front-running cases were taken up for investigation in 2025-26, compared with 44 in the previous year. Sebi completed investigations in 51 front-running cases during the year.

Separately, the regulator took up 224 cases related to insider trading, takeover and other illegal trade practices, and completed 204 cases.

Financial statement fraud also came under Sebi's lens, with 57 cases taken up for investigation and 40 cases completed during the fiscal.

Sebi initiates investigations based on inputs from various sources, including market surveillance, exchange reports, complaints and media reports.

The regulator's investigating authority examines evidence such as order and trade logs, transaction statements, depository and KYC data, bank records, company financial results and shareholding patterns, corporate developments and, where relevant, call data records obtained from telecom service providers.

Upon completion of an investigation, the investigating authority submits its report to the appointing authority for further action.

Also, Sebi and stock exchanges stepped up surveillance of market intermediaries in 2025-26, carrying out inspections covering more than 900 stock brokers during the year.

Sebi, along with exchanges, conducted 179 inspections of 106 brokers during the fiscal. These comprised 162 thematic inspections and 17 comprehensive inspections.

Separately, stock exchanges carried out 973 inspections covering 822 brokers across various market segments.