Regarding stock manipulation, SEBI bans Marc India and eleven other entities from the market

Twelve entities—including the promoter of V Marc India Ltd.—were barred from the securities market by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday for their roles in a fraudulent operation that manipulated share prices and volumes. Furthermore, the interim ruling states that the regulator seized erroneous earnings amounting to Rs 6.38 crore that were acquired by certain businesses under the manipulative scheme.

The main focus of this case is the alleged orchestration of fraudulent and manipulative trading operations involving the shares of V Marc India Ltd., a business listed on the NSE’s SME section, by its promoter, management, and affiliated parties.

As per the verdict by SEBI, there is prima facie evidence that Prijesh Kurani was hired by V Marc’s founder and MD, Vikas Garg, and previous Whole Time Director, Sandeep Kumar Srivastava, to ‘run the market’. The ruling also made clear that Kurani used accounts connected to Garg in addition to his own and related companies’ trading accounts to manipulate the stock.

Furthermore, Kurani was reportedly given money by Garg and the management of the firm to carry out the fraudulent operation via their linked organizations. On April 8, 2021, the scrip was posted; immediately after, the alleged fraudulent operations started.

“Volumes and prices spiked as a result of this purported fraudulent operation, and the majority of the entities—PV Manipulators and IPO subscribers—completely withdrew after that. Public shareholders bought the shares that were offloaded, which increased their numbers as well, according to SEBI.

Consequently, until further orders, SEBI has barred 12 firms from engaging in any activity related to the securities market, including purchasing, selling, or dealing in securities or connecting with it in any way.

Seema Garg, Madhu Srivastava, Jai Kishorr Singhal, Sudhir Gupta, Dharini Kurani, Rekha Kurani, Surbhi Aggarwal, Vinod Vilas Sable, and Seema Agarwal are the other organizations that SEBI has prohibited in addition to Garg, Srivastava, and Kurani.

Data taken from Kurani’s mobile device, which was seized during a legal “search and seizure operation” at his home in May 2022, provided support for SEBI’s April 9–April 30, 2021 inquiry. Investigating the “Front Running of Trades of Axis Mutual Fund” issue included this operation.

Crucial evidence in this case has been the data recovered from Kurani’s cellphone, namely WhatsApp chats between the companies specified in this order and a written agreement between some of the businesses.