Deccan Chronicle case: Sebi bars 4 individuals from markets for 2 yrs

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ) on Tuesday barred four individuals of Deccan Chronicle Holdings from the securities market for two years and imposed restrictions on an auditor as well as a company secretary for manipulation of the company’s financials and disclosure lapses. Chairman T Venkattram Reddy, vicechairmen T Vinayak Ravi Reddy and Parasuraman Karthik Iyer, and managing director N Krishnan have been restrained from the market for two years.Mani Oommen, partner at CB Mouli and Associates, has been barred from rendering auditing services to any listed company for one year. Company secretary V Shankar has also been directed not to provide company secretarial services to any listed company for one year, Sebi said in an order. The regulator found that the company manipulated its financials and made announcement for buyback of shares even in the absence of adequate reserves.Liabilities of Rs 2,905.320000000 and interest and finance charges of Rs 753.910000000 were diverted from the books of the firm on the last date of every accounting year and were reintroduced to the books on the next day just to avoid disclosure of the same to the public, as per the 65-page order.The watchdog said there would be no proceedings against Deccan Chronicle Holdings.