Sebi slaps over Rs 21 cr fine on Gujarat Arth promoters, PACs

Sebi has slapped a hefty penalty of over Rs 21 crore on Gujarat Arth Ltd's promoters and persons acting in concert (PACs) for fraudulent activities in the capital market as well as violation of takeover norms.

The capital market regulator found that the eight entities comprising Gujarat Arth's promoters and PACs had issued misleading corporate announcements in 2003 and 2004. Further, the entities were found involved in selling Gujarat Arth's shares in the market "in and around the time of misleading announcement which created artificial volume and impacted the price of the scrip thus defrauding investors". The entities had also failed to make public announcement and relevant disclosures regarding the share transactions.

In a ruling on Friday, Sebi imposed a penalty of Rs 2.61 crore on Shiv Kumar Agarwal as well as Rs 2.53 crore each on Roselabs Finance.