The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Monday that it has frozen trading accounts worth about ₹200 crore (yaani roughly ₹2 billion) during searches carried out on 16 October at 29 premises in Mumbai and Nashik in Maharashtra and Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat and Bhavnagar in Gujarat, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The searches were conducted in connection with alleged manipulation of the shares of two listed companies, R M Drip and Sprinklers Systems Ltd and R&B Denims Ltd.

According to the ED, between April 2023 and March 2024 the two companies issued more than 3.5 crore shares and convertible warrants to select persons and entities, and a large part of the money paid for those allotments allegedly came from a small circle of connected persons, firms and lenders. The agency alleged that over the following months the share prices were steadily pushed up while the shares largely stayed in the same hands.

The ED further said that between late December 2025 and February 2026, online communities named 'Multibagger Stocks' sent daily 'buy' tips on these shares to retail investors. The agency alleged the groups were operated from Bhavnagar using SIM cards obtained in the names of other persons in Haryana and Mumbai, and that the number of buyers in the two scrips rose from about 3,400 to more than one lakh.

During the searches, officials seized documents the agency described as incriminating, along with digital devices, share transaction records and property documents. The premises searched included the offices of the two companies, the residences of their promoters, the residences of persons who were allotted shares at low prices, offices of stock-broking and finance firms, and premises of persons suspected of running the promotional online groups.

In an exchange filing dated 19 October, R M Drip confirmed that the ED had searched its company office and its promoter's residence, and said the authority had not yet communicated any alleged violation to it and that, based on the information available to it, the proceedings had not caused any material impact on its financial position or operations. All the ED's claims are allegations in an ongoing investigation and have not been established by any court.

Sources: Enforcement Directorate statement reported by ANI, LiveMint and Devdiscourse; Nation Press; R M Drip exchange disclosure reported by 5paisa.