New Delhi: BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (Aug 13, 2004) demanded a full-fledged investigation into the heavy selling in Global Trust Bank (GTB) shares before the announcement of its merger with Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC).

Kirit Somaiya, convener of BJP Investors' Cell, alleged that the information about closure of GTB was "leaked" by Finance Ministry to the tainted big bull Ketan Parekh's group, which had sold two crore shares between June 14-July 24 and earned a hefty Rs 36 crore.

BJP will take up the issue of insider trading in GTB in Parliament when it resumes on Monday (Aug 16, 2004).

"It is purely insider trading. Instead of protecting 20,000 small investors, Finance Ministry, Reserve Bank (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have started passing the buck on each other," he said at a press meet in New Delhi.

Four days prior to the GTB-OBC merger announcement, Somaiya said 68,27,466 shares of GTB were traded at NSE (National Stock Exchange) and another 19,83,733 at BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange).

"It is very sad that due to passing of information of GTB merger and zero swap ratio, foreign entities sold their 16 per cent shares in the few days before July 24," Somaiya said, adding the holding of Indian public has gone up from 40 to 56 per cent during the same period.

OBC had discussed the GTB proposal in its board meeting on July 2. OBC had submitted its application to the RBI in the second week of July.

Finance Ministry and the RBI had announced the GTB-OBC merger on July 23.