SEBI v. Chirag Parmar (circular trades allegation, A.F. Enterprises, 2023)

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-68181-wash-trading-2023) by email

In February 2023 a SEBI adjudicating officer ended a case against Chirag Parmar, who SEBI said had taken part in circular trades in A.F. Enterprises Ltd shares, without imposing any penalty. The officer found no evidence linking him to the other entities or showing collusion.

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

Chirag Parmar was the only noticee in this proceeding, which forms part of SEBI's inquiry into trading in A.F. Enterprises Ltd shares on the BSE between May 2014 and April 2015. Other adjudication orders from the same inquiry address buyers accused of raising the price with small orders.

The show cause notice of November 2022 alleged that Mr Parmar entered into circular trades, meaning trades on the exchange screen that do not move beneficial ownership, and so added artificial volume. According to the investigation report summarised in the order, he was involved in circular trades in 50,116 shares over 26 days, about 6.9 per cent of the circular trading within a group of 119 entities and 1.27 per cent of market volume. SEBI cited section 12A of the SEBI Act and the fraud-on-the-market regulations, including the rule on trades without intention to change ownership.

The adjudicating officer said the investigation connected the group's members only through having traded together at least once. It showed no relationship between Mr Parmar and the others, nor with the company's promoters or preferential allottees, nor who owned the shares behind the trades. SEBI had also only issued administrative warnings to 148 other entities in the group. Applying Securities Appellate Tribunal rulings that a manipulation charge cannot rest on conjecture, he gave Mr Parmar the benefit of doubt.

The proceeding was disposed of under section 15HA without any monetary penalty.

This record is a dismissal. It does not show whether SEBI appealed, or what the circular trades were actually for, and it describes no criminal case.

This library tags the matter as wash trading and matched orders. 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.
• Matched orders — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2023-02-20 SEBI adjudication order disposing of the notice 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

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.