SEBI seeks right to tap phone calls and monitor emails

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator of securities market in India have requested the Lok Sabha to grant them the right to monitor emails and phone calls to curb black money entering the market.

SEBI wants to view phone calls and emails

Along with this request, Namo Narain Meena, the Minister of State for Finance has also asked the Lok Sabha that SEBI should be included in the list of law enforcement agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB). This written request had been submitted on the 12th of August, 2011 to the Lower House of Parliament of India. The request has already been sent to the Department of Telecommunications to monitor phone calls. According to a report, with these powers, SEBI looks to track down 'circular money' or black money that is sent to and fro from India and ends up in the Indian stock market. This is done in an attempt to avoid paying taxes.

The tracking of emails may be a bit hard to come by. This is because most of the email clients are based out of India. It is reported that even India’s law enforcement agencies, the CBI and IB have tried to access this customer information, but in vain. The report goes on to state that SEBI may get access to monitor phone calls after this request, even though it had been rejected before. This is because it would be useful to  SEBI to reveal the broker-operator-promoter connection.