Clients of suspended BMA Wealth Creators Ltd on Wednesday protested against the brokerage firm outside the Sebi office here, demanding action by the market regulator to resolve their grievances.
About 50-60 protesters, with festoons and banners, shouted slogans against the broking firm and its promoters after they were stopped from entering the L&T Chambers, which houses the city office of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Investors, including senior citizens, blocked Camac Street in central part of the city for about 30 minutes during the afternoon rush hours bringing traffic to a standstill.
Alleging that the market regulator and the government agencies did not pay heed to their grievances, the protesters demanded refund of their money and securities.
"We are not allowed to meet the Sebi officials here. The government agencies are not listening to our plea to return our money and securities. No stringent action was taken against the promoters who siphoned off our money," a former employee of the brokerage firm and an investor, Anirban Dasgupta told PTI.
BRH Wealth Kreators was formerly known as BMA Wealth Creators.
Clamping down on irregularities, Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had barred the stock broker which faces an allegation of diversion of client securities worth Rs 100 crore by the promoters. National Stock Exchange had also suspended the Kolkata-based broking firm in October.
The investors also alleged that the action taken by Sebi has been "inadequate".
Another investor and former employee of the firm, Prasun Majumdar alleged, "Around 40,000 investors have been affected due to the irregularities of the firm and no action against the culprits was taken by the regulator."
In September, the regulator received an e-mail from the NSE about significant mismatches and inconsistencies in the balances reported by BMA. A shortfall of around Rs 100 crore worth of client securities was observed as compared to the actual records.
BMA, in its communication to the exchange, had attributed the shortfall to software issue.
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