Jhunjhunwala, others settle insider trading case

TNN

Mumbai: Billionaire investor

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

, wife Rekha and eight others have settled insider trading charges brought against them by

markets regulator

Sebi for Rs 37 crore. The case relates to trading in shares of

Aptech

in which Jhunjhunwala is the promoter with about 48.5% holding.

Sebi on Wednesday said that the Jhunjhunwala couple, along with eight others including

Ramesh S Damani

and

Utpal Seth

, have agreed to settle the charges through the regulator’s settlement mechanism. Under this process, the people against whom the charges are framed by

Sebi

agree to pay a monetary penalty without accepting or denying the charges.

According to Sebi orders against these 10 entities, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has already paid about Rs 9.5 crore as settlement amount, nearly Rs 5.9 crore as disgorgement charges and another Rs 3.1 crore as interest on the same. Other nine people have also paid all the three charges to settle their respective charges.

The case relates to trading in shares of Aptech, a computer education company, in 2016.

Sebi, in its show-cause notice, had alleged that on September 7, 2016, after the market hours, Aptech announced that the company was foraying into the preschool segment. The information was considered as

unpublished price sensitive information

(UPSI) and the relevant period was between March 14 and September 7 of 2016. Sebi had alleged that Utpal Seth and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala were in possession of the

UPSI

and communicated the same to other applicants. On the basis of the UPSI, the entities were alleged to have traded in Aptech shares during the relevant period. Accordingly, Sebi had initiated proceedings against the entities, subsequent to which the settlements with these entities were reached.


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