Ban on Gammon Infra's ex-CMD Rajan to continue, says Sebi

Sebi today refused to withdraw the ban on Abhijit Rajan, former CMD of Gammon Infrastructure Projects, from the securities market and said the prohibition will continue till further directions in a case related to insider trading.
The market regulator, in its order in July last year, had barred Rajan after prima-facie finding him to have violated insider trading regulations.
This would be one of the few cases where CMD of a company has come under the scanner in an insider trading case.
In an order passed today, Sebi has confirmed the directions issued in respect of Rajan vide ad-interim ex-parte order dated July 17, 2014.

The directions issued vide the interim order "shall continue to be in force till further directions," it added.
In the present case, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) found that Rajan, being an 'insider', had access to the 'unpublished price sensitive information' and was in possession of the same and he dealt in the shares of Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd (GIPL) on the basis of that during August-September 2013 period.

Rajan served as Chairman and Managing Director of Gammon Infra till September 20, 2013 and continues to be on the company's board thereafter. Besides, Rajan remains CMD of another listed group firm Gammon India Ltd, where he also holds 5.99 per cent direct and another 29 per cent indirect stake.

Sebi had begun its probe based on inputs from National Stock Exchange that "there is a possibility that certain clients might have traded on the basis of unpublished price sensitive information" in shares of GIPL.
In its preliminary probe, Sebi observed that GIPL was an infrastructure project development company promoted by Gammon India Limited (holding 71.93 per cent stake).
Another promoter of GIPL is Gactel Turnkey Projects Limited holding 3.05 per cent stake which is also the subsidiary of Gammon India Limited.