Quasi-judicial proceedings on in RIL insider trading case: Sebi

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has said quasi-judicial proceedings are in progress in the 2007 Reliance Petroleum case and entities involved have filed for settlement by consent.

The statement came while dismissing an appeal on an RTI query, asking details of action taken on a complaint against Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) by a Member of Parliament.

“Investigation with respect to the dealings in the shares of Reliance Petroleum during November 2007 was conducted, quasi-judicial proceedings are in progress against certain entities and consent applications have also been received from all entities,” the regulator said in its response to the RTI query by P C Srivastava.

This is the first such official statement by Sebi in the three-year case, wherein RIL allegedly made unlawful gains in excess of Rs 513 crore. The details of the RTI query and the response were part of the order dismissing the appeal by Srivastava. In his appeal, Srivastava alleged “Sebi is trying to defend and protect (Mukesh) Ambani’s RIL and that it has been doing so right from the beginning because of pressure from the Union finance minister, etc.” He said the details of investigation were not provided. He had sought the complete details of investigation and consent applications, the provisions under the Sebi Act for consideration of consent applications and other provisions of punishment for such offence, etc.

Prashant Saran, whole time member, Sebi, said, “I find that these fresh requests and grounds for information can’t be allowed to be urged at appellate levels. I also do not find any reason that would warrant their admittance.”