A parliamentary committee on Thursday agreed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to request the Law Ministry for speedy disposals of share market cases through setting up special court for share market manipulation cases. The Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertaking at its meeting also expressed frustrations over snail pace disposal of the share market scam cases filed 12 years ago.
The members of the 10-strong watchdog viewed that the lengthy legal process in the court had been encouraging the market manipulators to suck people’s money through different ways.
“The fraud cases filed in 1996 are yet to be disposed. How can we bring people’s confidence on the capital market as the manipulators remain protected under (existing) legal process,” T I M Fazlay Rabbi Chowdhury, a committee member and Jatiya Party MP, said after the meeting at the parliament building. He was addressing the city journalists.
The SEC chairman told the meeting that they had no control over the speedy settlement of the share market related cases and demanded that the statutory body needed a special court to deal with such offences. “We, the committee members, supported his proposal for special courts and decided writing to the law minister,” said Chowdhury.
The SEC in 1997 filed 15 cases against 22 persons of eight issuer companies, involving 18 people of seven brokerage houses for the share market collapse in 1996.
The market manipulators swindled billions of taka from the capital market by issuing false share certificates and overpricing the shares.
In December 2010, some of the same manipulators maneuvered the capital market and appropriated thousands of crores taka. The government formed a high powered committee, headed by banker Ibrahim Khaled, and the body recommended further investigation into the last share market scam.
Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal, another member of the committee, said the government should establish dedicated courts for share market crimes to resolve.
“If the offenders are not tried, the investors will have no confidence in the capital market. Therefore, quicker decisions are needed,” noted Badal.
The committee chairman A B M Ghulam Mostafa said his committee would fully back the SEC’s reform proposals to stabilise the capital market.