The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is launching a massive investigation against pump and dump operations on the stock market. According to a NDTV Profit report, SEBI is investigating about 200 listed private companies that are suspected of inflating stock prices and offloading on retail investors.
As per the report, the market regulator has conducted its search operation at over 80 places in the last three days. Further, as part of the search operations, the authorities have extracted data from more than 100 computers and 150 mobile phones.
SEBI’s massive operation on market manipulation
SEBI’s latest search operation comes as part of its months-long massive operation to control market manipulations. Earlier in June, SEBI confirmed that it had carried out multiple search and seizure operations in June.
In a statement on June 30, SEBI said, “It is hereby clarified that SEBI has conducted search and seizure operations at multiple locations in the month of June 2025 in connection with pump and dump in certain scrips and has seized incriminating evidence. Investigation in the matter is under progress.”
How do fraudsters manipulate market?
As part of their pump and dump operations, fraudsters target a stock, usually a low-priced one, and buy a large quantity of the shares at low prices. Next, they create hype around the stock through media, social media, fake news or influencer forums to lure the retail investor to buy the stock.
Once retail investors buy a large number of shares and the stock rises to the targeted price, the fraudster sells their shares, taking profits, and retail investors are left with losses as the stock crashes in the aftermath of share dumping.
SEBI takes a strong stance against manipulation
Recently, SEBI identified two cases of pump and dump. In one case, Sanjiv Bhasin, a research analyst at IIFL Securities, was found of profited from a stock which he recommended on television. Second, the market regulators found that the promoters of Sadhana Broadcast manipulated the stocks by pumping and hyping via social media.
SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey has made it very clear that the marker regulator will not tolerate any kind of market manipulation. Speaking to media personnels after the interim ban on Jane Street, “Pandey said surveillance has been increased both by the regulator and also at the exchange level.“