Sebi slaps Rs 42 lakh fine on Exelon Infrastructure, 3 others

Sebi on Wednesday imposed a total fine of Rs 4200000 on Exelon Infrastructure Limited (EIL) and three others for failing to provide relevant information on issues including dealings in the shares of the firm as sought by the regulator. While EIL has been fined Rs 1000000 for failing to furnish information, a penalty of Rs 2000000, Rs 1000000 and Rs 200000 has been slapped on directors Srinivas Rao Marupadi, Shaik Ameer Basha and Ravinder Deshpande, respectively. Following a stock price jump in EIL in 2011, Sebi conducted a probe into the trading activities in the scrip during December 2010 to January 2012 and observed that major corporate announcements were made by the company during the period. The probe revealed that various positive corporate announcements made by EIL were not supported by the fundamentals of the company and the announcements were not implemented by the firm subsequently, Sebi Adjudication Officer B J Dilip said in an order. In order to ascertain the role of entities involved in the manipulation and the role of company and its directors, the investigation authority (IA) issued summons, seeking relevant information for the purpose of investigation. Dilip said “I am convinced that EIL, Basha and Marupadi failed to provide information sought by the IA through summons and various reminders regarding implementation status of various announcements made by the company, which I consider was material for the investigations.” About the information sought by the IA on details of dealings in shares of EIL, shareholding and proof of disclosures made to the firm and stock exchanges, Dilip also said Deshpande and Marupadi “have failed to submit complete information”. “I consider non-submission of information sought by the IA would not only weaken the case against those who are involved, but also delay gathering of evidences against such entities and thus hamper the investigation,” the officer noted.