Sebi penalises eight individuals for violation of insider trading norms

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday imposed fines totalling Rs 8 lakh on eight individuals for violation of insider trading norms in the shares of Titan Company Ltd.

The transactions were carried out between April 2018 and March 2019 when they were designated employees of Titan Company.

The regulator levied a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Raghuraman Rangharajan, Ajay Singh, R Saravanan, Nagaraja Ravichandran, Shyamsunder Rambhau Bedre, Krishan Sharma, Subramaniankannan and Y S Manjunath, according to eight separate orders.

The order came after Sebi received a letter from Titan Company Ltd (TCL), wherein the company intimated the regulator about alleged violations of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) and company's code of conduct by some of its designated persons/employees.

Thereafter, the market regulator conducted an investigation in the scrip of TCL and found non-compliances of PIT rules by the individuals during the April 2018-March 2019 period.

During their employment with TCL, they had transacted in the securities of the company but failed to make disclosures to the firm as required under the PIT norms, as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The disclosure was mandatory as the transactions exceeded the market value of Rs 10 lakh.

In a separate order, the market regulator slapped fines totalling Rs 20 lakh on four entities for indulging in fraudulent practices in the preferential allotment of Esaar India Ltd shares.

The regulator imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh each on Giriraj Kishore Agarwal, Tanu Agarwal, Saloni Agarwal and Tilak Finance Ltd.