Sebi bans 6 from securities market

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has debarred six people from accessing the securities market for allegedly indulging in fraudulent and unfair trade practices, and also impounded "wrongful gains" of about ₹2.84 crore.

The debarred individuals are Himanshu Mahendrabhai Patel, his brother Raj Patel, father Mahendrabhai Bechardas Patel, mother Kokilaben Patel, sister Avaniben Patel and another person named Jaydev Zala.

The regulator alleged that some of these individuals used to take positions in stocks before recommending those on a channel they operated on social media platform Telegram. Subsequently, they would offload their positions in the scrips, thereby making significant profits, it said.


"The alleged scheme of enticing and inducing others to deal in certain securities, thereby creating adverse and artificial impact on the price and volume of those scrips, has been ingenuously crafted and implemented in a manner that it was an impossible task for the common investors to identify any dubious hidden intent behind such messages and tips that were being circulated amongst them through the Telegram channel," Sebi said in an interim order on Wednesday.

Last year, Sebi received two complaints alleging that certain people, who were not having any registration to function in the securities markets as an intermediary, were using social media platforms like Telegram and Twitter to artificially influence stock prices so as to make illegal profits. Sebi initiated an investigation into the allegations.