New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) Regulator Sebi today bannedSwasata Steel Industries Ltd (SSIL) and its seven directorsfrom the securities market for at least four years in a caserelated to illegally raising Rs 12 crore from the public.
According to a Sebi order, SSIL had issued and allottedsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to atleast 795 investors during the financial years 2010-2011,2011-2012 and 2012-2013 and raised at least an amount of Rs12.19 crore.
Since the securities were issued to more than 50 people,the offer of NCDs qualified to be a public issue and requiredcompulsory their listing on a recognised stock exchange.
However, SSIL did not comply with the provision.
Among other requirements, the firm was required toregister a prospectus with the Registrar of Companies (RoC)under the Companies Act, which it failed to do.
Of the seven directors, while two -- Joydeb Biswas andPrasanta Chatterjee -- are present, five -- AvijitChakraborty, Manas Kumar Dan, Satya Ranjan Chaudhuri, ChittaRanjan Chowdhury and Swapna Chaudhuri -- are erstwhile.
The directors have also been restrained from associatingthemselves with any listed public company for at least fouryears, according to the order.
Besides, the firm and five directors -- Manas Kumar Dan,Satya Ranjan Chaudhuri, Chitta Ranjan Chowdhury, SwapnaChaudhuri and Prasanta Chatterjee -- have to refund the moneycollected by the company including the application moneycollected from investors with an annual interest of 15 percent.
The regulator said that Joydeb Biswas and AvijitChakraborty are not liable for refund of money as they werenot directors during the relevant time of fund mobilisation.
However, according to Sebi, they were responsible for allthe acts of the company during the period of theirdirectorship and were obligated to ensure refund of the moneycollected by the firm to the investors. PTI VRNMKJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.