No terror funds in stock market: FM

NEW DELHI: Putting to rest the fears of terror outfits penetrating the country’s stock markets, the government on Friday assured Parliament that it had found no indication of “surreptitious” entry of outlawed groups into the stock or real estate markets in the country.

“The government has consulted the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The information available to the government does not indicate any surreptitious entry by terrorist outfits,” finance minister P Chidambaram said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Mr Chidamabaram’s statement comes months after National Security Adviser MK Narayanan had, in his address to a security conference in Germany, revealed that manipulation of stock exchanges was the new modus operandi of terrorist groups to raise funds for their operations. He had claimed that some of these “fictitious” companies allegedly floated by terror outfits had operated on the Mumbai and Chennai stock exchanges. According to the NSA, intelligence agencies had traced some of these companies to terrorist groups.

“Isolated instances of terrorist outfits manipulating the stock markets to raise funds for their operations have been reported. Stock exchanges in Mumbai and Chennai have, on occasions, reported that fictitious or notional companies were engaging in stock market operations,” he had said, addressing the 43rd Conference on Security Policy in Munich. The government, later said that Mr Narayanan was only referring to a global trend rather than India-specific security threats.