New Delhi, Feb. 1 :    New Delhi, Feb. 1:  The ICE-man has finally wilted in the heat of intense grilling. Ketan Parekh, the rogue investor who has been in the eye of the storm ever since the stock markets collapsed last March, has admitted that his group companies took Rs 653.99 crore from the Zee group and Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) to pick up strategic stakes in a clutch of companies early last year. In a 31-page deposition to the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) which is investigating the securities scam that short-circuited another infamous bull run, Parekh said he had received Rs 215 crore from the Zee group and Rs 438.99 crore from the HFCL group. Sebi had charged Parekh with taking over Rs 425 crore from HFCL and in excess of Rs 340 crore from the Zee group. While admitting that he received slightly more from the HFCL group than charged by the market regulator, Parekh says he received far less from the Zee group. In his deposition, Parekh has claimed that he is not a stockbroker but a large investor while denying the charge that he manipulated the markets through circular trading. 'Dealing through various brokers in the market, or by non-broking entities, is not indicative of any attempt to circumvent the restrictions by Sebi but merely the prudence of any large investor in the market,' he said while adding that the market had yet to define what circular trading actually meant. Parekh said the agreements between Zee and HFCL with his group companies were contractual in nature. Since the market collapse, the Zee group has initiated recovery proceedings against some of the KP group entities. The Zee group had entered into contractual agreements with KP group entities like Saimangal Investrade and Panther Investrade to pick up a stake in B4U, ABCL (formerly Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd), Shonkh Technologies, Mascon Global and Crane Software. HFCL, the telecom equipment maker, funnelled funds to KP entities to acquire strategic stakes in ABCL, Global E-commerce and Shonkh Technologies. Under an agreement dated January 19, 2001, Ganjam Trading Company (a Zee group entity), paid Rs 25 crore to KP-controlled Panther Investrade to buy 6.25 lakh shares of B4U International. 'On the same day, Saimangal Investrade entered into agreement with Prajatma Trading (another Zee entity) for the purchase of 3.35 lakh shares of Mascon Global and 5.08 lakh shares of Shonkh for a total sum of Rs 25 crore by Prajatma,' Parekh said in his written statement to JPC. On January 23, 2001, Panther Investrade entered into an agreement with Churu Trading for the sale of 12 lakh shares of Crane Software, 64,000 shares of Mascon Global, and 4.46 lakh shares of flamboyant filmmaker Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts for a consideration of Rs 20 crore. Saimangal subsequently entered into an agreement with Churu Trading for the sale of 5.81 lakh shares of Mascon Global for Rs 20 crore. 'The total amount of Rs 90 crore was received by Panther Investrade and Saimangal in the said period,' Parekh said. On March 9, 2001, Classic Credit entered into an agreement with Briggs Trading for the sale of a 20.75 per cent stake of ABCL for Rs 75 crore while Panther Fincap entered into an agreement with Prajatma for the sale of 10.25 lakh shares of Shonkh Technologies, 5.55 lakh shares of Ramesh Taurani-owned music cassette maker Tips Industries, and 7.75 per cent stake of ABCL for a total sum of Rs 50 crore. 'Although the shares to be given to Zee group entities pursuant to these agreements were owned by the entities mentioned, these shares were pledged and the same therefore remains to be delivered to the relevant Zee entities. Further recovery proceedings have been initiated by Zee group entities against Panther Fincap, Saimangal Investrade, Classic Credit and Panther Investrade,' Parekh said. Parekh said HFCL had indicated a desire to acquire strategic stakes in ABCL, Global E-commerce and Shonkh Technologies in 2000. Consequently, HFCL Trade-invest and Burlington Finance (both HFCL group companies) entered into an agreement with Classic Credit on September 12, 2000 to buy one crore shares of Global E-commerce Services for Rs 265 crore, which was subsequently reduced to Rs 240 crore by mutual agreement. On February 7, 2001, HFCL Trade-Invest entered into an agreement with Classic Credit to buy a 28.5 per cent stake in ABCL for Rs 165 crore and 25 lakh shares of Shonkh Technologies for Rs 90 crore. 'The total funds actually received from HFCL Trade-Invest was Rs 240 crore with Rs 198.99 crore coming from Burlington Finance,' Parekh has admitted to JPC. Parekh claims that he saw the ICE boom before anyone else. Later, every one jumped on to his bandwagon in 2000 and rode their fortunes while the market boomed. 'In the hope that my bullishness for India and Indian technology companies will come true, I crossed the principles of risk management and failed miserably,' Parekh said. 'I was a large investor and had grossly over committed myself to the market. Many market players started taking advantage of the situation. Although I do not make them directly responsible, their rumour mongering, spreading negative reports on myself with help of some quarters of the media were also partly the cause of the crisis,' he said. 'In order to honour my commitments, I raised resources from bank by pledging assets from corporates by selling my investments and from market intermediaries etc which, instead of reducing my financial burden, actually deepened the crisis,' he said. The crisis escalated after Income Tax and Sebi raids on various stock broking entities which sent the situation spiralling out of control.