No terror outfits in Indian stock markets, says Chidambaram

New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that there was no indication of "surreptitious" entry of terrorist outfits in the Indian stock or real estate markets.

Responding to a parliamentary query in the Lok Sabha yesterday, Chidanmabaram stated in a written reply, "Government have consulted Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The information available to government does not indicate any surreptitious entry into the stock market or real estate market by terrorist outfits."

In the aftermath of the steep stock market correction earlier in February this year, national security advisor M K Narayanan had said that manipulation of stock exchanges was the new modus operandi used by terrorist groups to raise funds for their operations and fictitious companies were operating in the stock exchanges at Mumbai and Chennai.

Narayanan had said that some of these companies had later been traced 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.