Sebi penalises six people for violating insider trading rules in Titan case

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday penalised six individuals for violating insider trading norms in the matter of Titan Company Ltd.

The regulator has levied a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Muniraj Radhakrishnan, Gangadhar Sudheer Kallihal, Punit Juneja, Jayraj P, Arjun Ramji Vishwakarma and Mekat George.

In six separate orders, Sebi said these individuals were employees or designated persons of Titan at the time of the violation.

While in employment of Titan, they had transacted in securities of the company on two occasions between the quarter ended June 2018 and March 2019.

The total traded value of the securities by each of them was in excess Rs 10 lakh.

Under the norms, they were required to make disclosures to Titan for each of the transactions within two working days. However, they did not make the disclosures.

By doing so, they violated the prohibition of insider trading (PIT) norms.

They have contended that were not aware about Sebi Act, PIT regulations and the company's code of conduct for prevention of insider trading.

The orders came after Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) received a letter from Titan, wherein the company intimated the regulator about contravention of insider trading norms and company's code of conduct for prevention of insider trading by some of its designated persons/ employees.

Thereafter, Sebi conducted an investigation in the scrip of Titan and observed several instances of non-compliance of insider trading rules during the period April 2018 to March 2019 by employees and designated persons of the company.