Sebi slaps Rs 35 lakh fine on 6 entities in Austral Coke case

Market regulator Sebi today slapped a fine of Rs 35 lakh on six entities for allegedly failing to make shareholding disclosures within the required timeline in a case related to Austral Coke and Projects Ltd.
These entities were promoters of Austral Coke and Projects when the violation was committed.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), in an order, imposed a total penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Anarcon Resources, Lalita Agarwal, Ratanlal Brijlal Tamakhuwala, Rishiraj Agarwal, Sangeeta Rishiraj Agarwal and Hanuman Investments.
Besides, the regulator levied another Rs 5 lakh fine on Hanuman Investments.
A Sebi probe found that these six entities were holding 65.29 per cent stake in the company as on September 30, 2009 and they offloaded majority of their stake between November 2009 to January 2010.

According to Sebi, these entities have "sold shares representing more than two per cent of the share capital of the company on various dates... And ought to have made disclosures to the company and to the exchange."

However, they failed to make any such disclosure, it added.
Sebi noted that shareholding of Hanuman Investments had changed by more than two per cent in the company upon invocation of pledge by SICOM Ltd on December 22, 2009 and February 1, 2010, and the entity should have disclosed such a change.
However, it had not made the required disclosure.
These entities have failed to discharge the statutory obligation of making the requisite disclosures.

In a separate order, Sebi has slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Seema Securities for violating brokers' norms, including failing to maintain segregation between own funds and client funds.
The broker also failed to pay interest to clients on credit balances maintained with it. Seema Securities has allowed persons that are not its employees/on its payroll to operate its terminals.
It did not display e-mail address for redressal of investor grievances on its client registration forms contract notes.