SEBI v. Hanif Shekh and others (Darshan Orna bulk-SMS scheme, final order, 2022)

Judgment entered

✓ 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.

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In December 2022 a SEBI chief general manager found that Hanif Shekh sent bulk SMS buy tips for Darshan Orna shares in January 2019 while connected accounts sold into the resulting interest. He was barred for five years and fined Rs 70 lakh, and nine front accounts were barred for three years and fined Rs 10 lakh jointly. Proceedings against 27 other noticees were closed.

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

8m 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

SEBI chief general manager Geetha G. issued this final order on 19 December 2022 in the matter of Darshan Orna Limited, whose shares moved from the BSE SME platform to the BSE main board in December 2018. Thirty-seven noticees were named. The lead is Hanif Shekh, with a group of nine accounts described in the order as the Bengal Group: Arun Laha, Minu Mallick, Ujjal Laha, Sanjay Dey, Arun Dutta, Glorious Vincom, Highgrowth Vincom, Buddhadeb Laha and Priyankar Laha.

SEBI began with several complaints in January 2019 that bulk SMS messages had been circulated from 7 to 31 January 2019 recommending that Darshan Orna be bought. After a BSE examination SEBI investigated trading from 4 June 2018 to 31 January 2019 and issued a show cause notice on 2 September 2021. It alleged that Mr Shekh circulated the messages, that entities connected to him bought beforehand and offloaded into the retail interest the messages created, and that some of their purchases were funded by connected companies.

The order finds that the messages came from Mr Shekh and were misleading, and that the Bengal Group accounts were bought with funding from companies of a Nandu Shaw group and sold shares after the messages went out, acting as fronts or mule accounts rather than genuine investors. It holds Mr Shekh responsible as the main perpetrator under section 12A of the SEBI Act and regulations 3 and 4 of the PFUTP Regulations 2003, including the ban on misleading advertisements and false news, and holds the front accounts liable for taking part in the scheme. The allegations against a Gujarat group of funders were dropped as the link was weak, and the Nandu Shaw companies are being dealt with separately.

Directions: Mr Shekh was restrained from the securities market for five years and fined Rs 70,00,000; the nine front accounts (the order describes them as earning about Rs 70 lakh of profit) were restrained for three years and fined Rs 10,00,000 jointly and severally. No disgorgement was ordered because the investigation had not quantified Mr Shekh's profit and the front accounts were mule accounts. The penalties total Rs 80,00,000. Proceedings against the other noticees were disposed of without directions.

The record does not show whether the order was appealed or any sum paid, or what happened to the separate proceedings against the funding companies. A separate adjudication order in the same matter is recorded elsewhere in this library. No criminal case is described.

This library tags the matter as a pump and dump. 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2022-12-19 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

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.