"Something which Rahul Gandhi had cautioned": Congress targets Centre over Jane Street's alleged market manipulation, demands accountability

New Delhi [India], July 8 (ANI): Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Modi government, alleging gross regulatory failure in the wake of accusations against American algo-trading giant Jane Street Group.
Speaking to ANI, Shrinate claimed that the firm manipulated Indian stock and derivatives markets between January 2023 and March 2025, earning illegal profits of over Rs 44,000 crore, most of which was allegedly siphoned off to the United States.
"An American algo-trading company, Jane Street, started operations in Indian in 2020. It dealt in both the share market and the derivative market. It was dealing in such a large volume that it was manipulating stock price in share market and was earning illegal profits in F&O market. Between January 2023 and March 2025, it earned a profit of around Rs 44,000 Crores...It sent this profit to America. SEBI has now issued an order that they are seizing Rs 4400 Crores...Who is suffering due to this? Small investors of this country - something which Rahul Gandhi had cautioned about again and again...Our question is that when Jane Street tells US Court that they earned 2.3 billion dollars due to inefficiencies in India, when market investors are writing to you, why did you stay silent? Why did you not do anything?" Shrinate said.
The Congress leader further questioned the government's silence, calling for answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and demanding that steps be taken to recover the remaining funds from abroad.
"The Government will be questioned now because Narendra Modi and Amit Shah pose as market experts and offer suggestions on the stock market, now when people are losing their money and company is earning profits illegally and sending to the US, what would you do now? You can't be silent. Would you be able to speak with Donald Trump and retrieve the money?" Supriya Shrinate said.
On July 3, SEBI in its order noted that the US-based firm used a profit-maximising scheme to manipulate the market and booked substantial profits in index options, while incurring smaller losses in the cash and futures segments.
SEBI further stated that Jane Street Group entities, despite caution letters from NSE in February 2025 and their own commitments to refrain from certain trading behaviours, continued to deploy the same high-risk and market-distorting strategies.
SEBI sources later said that the interim order against the index manipulation matter concerning Jane Street should not be considered a show-cause notice. The investigations into the US-based investment firm will continue, the sources had added.
"It is difficult to estimate how long all this (probe) could take - the scope is quite large," the sources had asserted. (ANI)