SEBI slaps Rs 12 lakh fine on Kwality Ltd, five promoters

Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday imposed a total penalty of Rs 1200000 on Kwality Limited and its five promoters for allegedly violating disclosure norms. The promoters are Sanjay Dhingra, Gulshan Dhingra, Naresh Dhingra, Krishan Dhingra and Kanika Dhingra, according to a Sebi order. A probe conducted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) into share trading of Kwality Limited between December 2009 and December 2011 found that there was a change in the number of promoters and their shareholdings for the quarter ended September, 2011, the order said. During the quarter, Kanika Dhingra was included in the promoter category and acquired 5.240000000 shares or 25.84% of the total capital from other promoter and was required to disclose acquisition of shares to the company and to the stock exchanges under SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) norms. The other four promoters were also required to make various disclosures including a change exceeding 2% of total share capital of the firm to BSE and NSE under PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) regulations. “However, no disclosure regarding the change in shareholding was ever made to the stock exchanges,” Sebi said in the order. Further, the regulator noted that Kwality Limited also violated SAST norms by failing to make disclosures regarding acquisition of shares. Accordingly, Sebi has slapped a penalty of Rs 200000 each on the six entities.