Market regulator Sebi on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 6 lakh on Dilip S
Mehta, owner of a chartered accountancy firm, for failing to respond to
summons issued by it in relation to a probe into the affairs of
erstwhile Bank of Rajasthan. The matter pertains to alleged
irregularities committed by former promoters of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR).
Imposing a “penalty of Rs 6 lakh”, Sebi in its order today said Mehta’s
failure indicates that the default is repetitive in nature. The
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had
summoned Mehta to
examine his link to Sangeeta Jayram Sawant, director of 30 companies
that were connected to the promoters which were buying and selling
shares of BoR. It had issued two summonses to Mehta. Both were received
by him but did not comply with them. The market regulator observed that
the information sought from Mehta was critical and imperative to the
investigation and failure on his part to comply with the summons had
hampered the probe. Sebi noted that the “information provided by the
noticee now is of no relevance and cannot be accepted as the same was
required by the Investigating Authority before the completion of the
investigation. Hence the submissions made by the noticee are not
accepted”.The matter relates to Sebi’s investigation into the affairs of
BoR for a period between June 2007 and December 2009. Since then, BoR
has been acquired by ICICI Bank. The probe revealed that BoR’s then
promoters, led by Pravin Kumar Tayal, along with some companies that
were connected to him and his relatives, by way of their continuous
disclosure publicly announced that their stake had come down from 44.2
per cent as on quarter ending June 2007 to 28.6 per cent as on quarter
ending December 2009. However, it was alleged, though as per disclosure
their holding seemed to have reduced, but in reality the holding of the
promoters actually increased with the active collusion of front
entities. Thus, the shareholding of the promoters of BoR with PACs
(Person Acting in Concert) had increased from 46.8 per cent in June 2007
to 63.15 per cent in December 2009. –
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