SEBI v. Urmila Debi (order-book manipulation in Krishana Fabrics, 2022)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 9, 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.

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In December 2022 a SEBI adjudicating officer fined Urmila Debi Rs 13 lakh for placing and deleting large buy and sell orders in Krishana Fabrics on 5 and 6 October 2016 to show false demand, and for ignoring SEBI summons. She earned about Rs 1.71 lakh on the trades.

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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Penalty as published

1.3m INR

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. This regulator states penalties in INR. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

The order of 6 December 2022 was made by SEBI adjudicating officer Amit Kapoor. The sole noticee is Urmila Debi, who traded in the shares of Krishana Fabrics Ltd. The proceedings were decided without her participation: she filed no reply and did not attend the hearing.

SEBI had started its investigation after complaints on its grievance portal that text messages were recommending the stock. It examined November 2015 to April 2017 and alleged that Ms Debi manipulated the order book through false volumes and demand. On 5 October 2016 she placed buy orders for about 33.8 lakh shares and deleted nearly all of them after executing about 98,556 shares; on 6 October 2016 she placed buy orders for about 67.9 lakh shares and deleted about 65.9 lakh of them. Sell orders were also placed and deleted. The charge was a breach of section 12A of the SEBI Act and PFUTP Regulations 3 and 4, plus ignoring a summons.

The adjudicating officer held that the pattern showed no intention to execute the large orders and was meant to give the impression of demand, and that she had not cooperated with the investigation. He found that she made a profit of ₹1,71,071.65 on matched buy and sell trades over the two days, that no investor loss could be shown, and that SEBI had taken no earlier action against her.

He imposed Rs 8,00,000 under section 15HA for the manipulation and Rs 5,00,000 under section 15A for the summons failure, Rs 13,00,000 in all, payable within 45 days.

The record does not show whether the penalty was paid or appealed, who sent the text messages, or whether other persons traded with her.

This library tags the matter as spoofing, because large visible orders were placed and cancelled before execution. 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 one technique 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.

• Spoofing — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2022-12-06 SEBI order

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
• SEBI 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.