SEBI to be given powers to get call data records of entities

Market regulator SEBI will soon be given powers to get telephone call data records (CDRs) of entities under its investigation in cases of insider trading, money laundering and other market manipulations.

A formal order in this respect will be issued after the Union Cabinet gives its approval to the proposal.

"A note has been prepared to be presented before the Union Cabinet. We hope the Cabinet will give its nod very soon," a Home Ministry official told PTI.

SEBI will be given the powers to get CDRs, access to emails and SMSes through amendments in the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, which are being worked out jointly by the ministries of Home, Finance and Telecom.

The move to give SEBI the powers to access CDRs came following a request of the market regulator as well as the Ministry of Finance, official sources said.

SEBI needs CDRs of entities under its investigation to establish links between two or more parties who might have had conversations among themselves before or after the incidents of insider trading, prevent black money coming to market or other manipulative activities in the market.

CDRs generally list out the number of conversations between two or more entities and are different from phone- tapping wherein an agency can snoop on or record telephonic conversations of those suspected to be engaged in wrongdoings.

Regulators in the US and some other countries have often used tapped phone conversations to prove insider trading and other charges, including in the famous Rajat Gupta case.

Last month, SEBI chairman U K Sinha had told PTI that CDRs can be very useful to establish that two parties have been talking to each other and could be related entities.