Money mix

Mumbai, Nov. 28: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today dropped its charges against Indiabulls Securities in the demat scam.

In the order, Sebi whole-time director G. Anantharaman said Indiabulls had received shares of Tata Consultancy Services in its client margin account from various clients as a stock broker. It was not a key operator trying to corner IPO allotment shares.

The order noted that the inspection carried out by National Securities Depository Limited and the team of officials of Sebi, National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange did not throw up anything suspicious to raise doubts about the genuineness of the demat account holders.

The order added that the 559 demat accounts under investigation did not have the characteristics of a typical afferent account and none of them have been actively involved in the manipulation of IPO allotment.

Further, the demat account of Ajay Kumar Gupta, who was treated as financier in Sebi’s interim order, was a client margin account. Gupta has also been found to be a man of limited resources, which raised question on the financial competence of the beneficial owner.

In an interim order dated April 27, 2006, Sebi had directed various market participants, including Indiabulls, not to buy, sell or deal in the securities market. They could not participate in IPOs, directly or indirectly, in proprietary account till further directions.

However, after a written representation by Indiabulls and a hearing, the order was kept in abeyance on April 28, 2006, till further directions.

CSFB relief

Sebi will not impose any further penalty on Credit Suisse First Boston (India) Securities Private Limited regarding the irregular transactions in shares of DSQ Biotech Limited, now Origin Agrostar Limited. However, Anantharaman, in the order, advised the firm to be careful in future.