Sebi Bars 12 Entities For Five Years In Front-running Case
Jan 17, 2026
Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India on Friday barred 12 entities from accessing the securities market for five years and imposed penalties totalling Rs 90 lakh for their role in a front-running case.
In a detailed 102-page final order, the regulator also directed the entities to disgorge unlawful gains of Rs 1.07 crore along with interest at 12 per cent per annum. The amount is to be paid jointly and severally to the Investor Protection and Education Fund within 45 days.
Sebi found that a large client, Paresh N Bhagat, Chairman and Managing Director of Mangal Keshav Financial Services, had placed orders through his dealers, Ashish S Parekh and Rajesh Joshi, who were in possession of non-public information (NPI). The order noted that the dealers shared confidential information relating to impending trades with Nagendra S Dubey and Chirag Atul Pithadia.
According to Sebi, this information was then used to place advance trades through connected entities, effectively front-running the big client’s orders. “These trades carried out by the front runners, in collusion with the information carriers, should be termed as trades carried out by front-running the impending orders of the big client,” Sebi whole-time member Kamlesh C Varshney said in the order.
The front-runners identified by the regulator include Dipa Ashish Parekh, Kashmira Joshi, Nikhil Hirachand Jain, Nikhil Hirachand Jain HUF, Alpesh Hirachand Jain HUF, Nagendra S Dubey HUF, and Late Sushma Nagendra Dubey through her legal heirs Jagruti Atul Pithadia and Sahil Atul Pithadia.
Sebi said the use of NPI to execute such trades amounted to fraudulent, manipulative and unfair trade practices. “The activity of trading based on non-public information is in violation of the PFUTP regulations,” Varshney said.
Accordingly, Sebi restrained Notices 1 to 13 from dealing in securities for five years from the date of the interim order issued on 26 December 2022. Kashmira Joshi and Rajesh Joshi were also barred from the securities market for five years. Ashish Parekh, Nagendra Dubey and Chirag Pithadia were prohibited from associating with any Sebi-registered intermediary or listed company for four years.
The regulator vacated earlier directions against Late Sushma Nagendra Dubey, except for disgorgement through her legal heirs. In addition to disgorgement, Sebi imposed individual monetary penalties ranging between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.
The case stemmed from a preliminary examination report submitted by the National Stock Exchange on suspected front-running activities. Sebi issued an interim order in December 2022 and a confirmatory order in December 2023 after completing its investigation covering the April–December 2021 period.
[Business World]
