Investors seek quick action against Dalmia

Dalmia is the last person8212;of those involved in the 2000 stock scam8212;to be booked by the investigators. 8220;He is the only promoter who issued duplicate shares to himself and later sold them in the market. His involvement was brought out by the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2000 scam,8221; Somaiya said.

Officials of market regulator Sebi, which was investigating market manipulation cases against Dalmia, said they will wait for their chairman M Damodaran to return from Singapore before commenting on the issue.

8220;The investigators have a water-tight case as it8217;s plain forgery. Sebi investigations have detailed how Dalmia cheated the investors through the fraud issue of shares. It8217;s surprising that he evaded arrest for six years,8221; said a broker who was tracking Dalmia8217;s activities in India.

Dalmia took advantage of the euphoria in 2000-01 to increase DSQ8217;s capital by 50 per cent without informing the stock exchanges. He introduced these 1.3 crore shares in the market originally allotted to three Mauritius-based shell companies without getting these listed. The ultimate beneficiary of this allotment was Dalmia himself.

Sebi had earlier barred Dalmia from the capital market for 10 years and ordering him to buy back 1.3 crore unlisted shares, place these in a separate demat account and extinguish them. Sebi had calculated the unjust benefit that had accrued to Dalmia through the dubious issue of shares as Rs 630 crore; the value of shares issued then was Rs 945 crore.