SAT upholds Sebi' order against 4 entities in T Spiritual case

The Securities and Appellate Tribunal SAT ) has upheld Sebi 's orders against four entities related to fraudulent trading in shares of T Spiritual World but has reduced the quantum of penalty slapped on each one them to Rs 100000 from Rs 2.500000.On March 14, 2013, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had imposed a penalty of Rs 2.500000 each on Manjula Jain, Umesh Kumar Thaker, Jinprabhu Securities and SIL Leasing and Industrial Finance for dealing in shares of T Spiritual World "in fraudulent and manipulative manner".In four similar-worded orders dated July 2, SAT has said that "keeping in view the totality of facts and circumstances of the matter, the impugned order is hereby upheld"."However, the monetary penalty imposed by the order, appears to be slightly on the higher side, commensurate with the violation in question. Therefore, we uphold the impugned order by reducing the penalty from Rs 2.500000 to Rs 100000," it added.The case relates to a Sebi investigation into the dealing in the shares of T Spiritual World for the period from July 12 , 2004 to February 4, 2005.The probe found that the four entities connected to T Spiritual World and to each other had dealt in the scrip of the company in a fraudulent and manipulative manner.The entities had allegedly created false and misleading appearance of trading, artificial volume, price increase and offloaded their shareholding in the market.Based on its findings, Sebi had slapped the penalties on the entities following which they had approached SAT challenging the regulator's orders.