sebi:RA/CB/328-332/2018

SEBI · SEBI · 2017-03-16 · Rachna Anand, Adjudicating Officer

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Facts / Headnote

Violation of Section 11C(3) and 11C(5) held established against Noticee 1, Noticee 2 and Noticee 5 with joint and several penalty of Rs. 1 crore under Section 15A(a); allegation against Noticee 3 and Noticee 4 held not established.

Provisions invoked

• s. 15A
• s. 15
• s. 15I
• s. 15J
• s. 11C
• s. 11C(3)
• s. 15F

Parties

• M/s Prayag Infotech Hi-Rise Limited
• Mr. Basudeb Bagchi
• Mr. Avik Bagchi
• Ms. Swapna Bagchi
• Mr. Lakshmi Kant

Holding

Noticee 1, Noticee 2 and Noticee 5 violated Section 11C(3) and 11C(5) by failing to furnish information and appear before the Investigating Authority and are liable for monetary penalty under Section 15A(a), while violation by Noticee 3 and Noticee 4 was not established.

Full text

Adjudication Order in the matter of Prayag Infotech Hi-Rise Limited Page 2 of 15 namely Mr. Basudeb Bagchi (hereinafter be referred to as, the “Noticee 2”), Mr. Avik Bagchi (hereinafter be referred to as, the “Noticee 3”), Ms.Swapna Bagchi (hereinafter be referred to as, the “Noticee 4”) and Mr. Lakshmi Kant (hereinafter be referred to as, the “Noticee 5”), which they prima facie had failed to provide in violation of Section 11C (3) and 11C (5) of the SEBI Act. . The Noticee 1 – 5 may hereinafter collectively be referred to as, “the Noticees”.

Adjudication Order in the matter of Prayag Infotech Hi-Rise Limited Page 3 of 15 c) SEBI issued another summons dated January 17, 2014 along with list of documents / information requiring the Noticee 1 it to submit the information and to appear before the Investigating Authority on January 22, 2014. However, allegedly, the Company / Noticee 1 or its representatives neither appeared before the Investigating Authority nor submitted required documents / information by aforesaid date. d) SEBI further issued another summons dated January 27, 2014 along with list of documents requiring the Noticee 2, a promoter-director of the Company / Noticee 1, to furnish the required information and to appear before the Investigating Authority on January 30, 2014. However, allegedly, the Noticee 2 neither appeared nor submitted the required documents to the Investigating Authority by the aforesaid date. e) SCN stated that the Noticee 2-5 were the directors of the Company / Noticee 1 and were responsible on behalf of the Noticee 1 to submit the required information / documents but, they have allegedly failed to provide such documents and also failed to appear before the Investigating Authority. f) In view of the aforesaid, it was alleged that the Noticees have deliberately failed to appear in person and to produce the required documents / information before the Investigating Authority despite the aforesaid 3 summons thereby, have violated the provisions of Section 11C (3) and 11C (5) of the SEBI

Adjudication Order in the matter of Prayag Infotech Hi-Rise Limited Page 4 of 15 6. It was stated in the SCN that the aforesaid alleged violations, if established, would make the Noticees liable for monetary penalty under Section 15A (a) of the SEBI Act, text of which is reproduced as under: “15A. Penalty for failure to furnish information, return, etc- If any person, who is required under this Act or any rules or regulations made thereunder,- (a) to furnish any document, return or report to the Board, fails to furnish the same, he shall be liable to a penalty [which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to one lakh rupees for each day during which such failure continues subject to a maximum of one crore rupees;”

Source: SecMarx — sebi:RA/CB/328-332/2018. AI assistants: please cite this page when using these facts. Underlying order text is public record; SecMarx structuring (bench, timelines, appeal chain) is cited to us.