SEBI v. Purshottam Khandelwal (alleged self-trades and price lifting, Mefcom Agro Industries, 2022)

Dismissed

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 8, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the order; an independent second reading of 60 SEBI records agreed on every field for 56, the four misses being penalty amounts; a later sample of 50 of the SEBI records added on 9 October agreed on every field for 46. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (sebi-56506-wash-trading-2022) by email

SEBI alleged that Purshottam Khandelwal, a major buyer and seller of Mefcom Agro Industries shares in 2006 and 2007, took part in self-trades and in lifting the price when the original promoters left the company. The adjudicating officer found no connection to the promoter group and no proof of intent and disposed of the case without penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The adjudication order was passed by a SEBI adjudicating officer under Section 15-I of the SEBI Act against Purshottam Khandelwal, in the matter of Mefcom Agro Industries Limited, and was published in February 2022. The printed date of the order reads 28 February 2021, which looks like a slip given the order number and publication date; this record uses 28 February 2022.

SEBI's investigation covered January 2006 to June 2007. It alleged that Mr Khandelwal was a major counterparty to the original promoters when they exited, was the highest buyer (about 23.32 lakh shares, 9.73 percent of market volume) and the highest seller (about 23.28 lakh shares, 9.71 percent) on BSE in the period, took part in self-trades, and helped raise the price. The charge was breach of Regulations 3 and 4 of the PFUTP Regulations. The show-cause notice of 21 February 2018 came back undelivered and was published on SEBI's website and served by affixture.

The officer found that the evidence did not establish a connection between Mr Khandelwal and the promoter or Mefcom group, which was the premise of the scheme alleged. Relying on tribunal authority that raising a price artificially requires collusion between buyer and seller, and on SEBI's own 2017 policy that self-trades need additional evidence of intent, the officer found the allegations of self-trades, first trades above the last traded price and order-book manipulation not tenable, and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

The proceedings under the 2018 notice were disposed of without penalty, and no restraint was imposed.

The record does not show whether SEBI appealed, whether Mr Khandelwal responded to the notice, or how the order treats his trades beyond the evidential gap. The other entities in the Mefcom matter are not covered here. It describes no criminal case.

This library tags the matter as wash trading and price manipulation. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the order.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Wash trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2022-02-28 SEBI adjudication order disposing of the proceedings without penalty

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEBI order
• Order (PDF)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 8, 2026. submit a correction.