SEBI v. Mangalbhai Valabhai Rathod and others (Gayatri Sugars Ltd, 2023)

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 May 2023 a SEBI adjudicating officer fined 16 noticees Rs 77 lakh in total over trading in Gayatri Sugars Ltd shares on BSE in April 2018: one trader for trying to push the price up, twelve linked family and business accounts for trades among themselves, and three for ignoring SEBI summons or issuing misleading material.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

7.7m 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

This adjudication order was issued on 31 May 2023 by G. Ramar, a SEBI adjudicating officer. It names 16 noticees in the matter of Gayatri Sugars Ltd, a company listed on BSE. The investigation period was short, 10 to 23 April 2018. The first twelve noticees named here are shown in the record; four further noticees are covered by the same order.

SEBI's allegations fell into three groups. Mangalbhai Valabhai Rathod, Ronakkumar R Patel and Zodiac Solutions were alleged to have failed to answer SEBI summons, and Zodiac Solutions was also said to have failed to appear and to have advertised misleading information that could affect the market. Mehul Tulsidas Simaria was alleged to have deliberately tried to raise the price of the stock. The remaining noticees, a company, the Surana family accounts and others, were alleged to have created a misleading appearance of trading by trading among themselves.

The order finds the allegations established. It notes that the first three noticees did not reply to the notices or attend, that Mr Simaria's trades accounted for a large share of the positive last-traded-price movement in the stock, and that Noticees 5 to 16 created a misleading appearance of trading by trading within their group. The material on record did not quantify any gain or investor loss.

Penalties were imposed under section 15A(a) and 15HA of the SEBI Act: Rs 3 lakh each on the first two noticees for non-compliance with summons, Rs 6 lakh on Zodiac Solutions, and Rs 5 lakh each on the remaining thirteen noticees, a total of Rs 77 lakh. No market bar or disgorgement was ordered.

The order is an administrative penalty, not a criminal judgment, and the record shows no criminal case. It does not show whether any noticee appealed or paid. Several noticees did not reply or attend, so the order largely reflects SEBI's evidence unrebutted.

This library tags the matter as price manipulation and matched trades. 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.

• Price manipulation — 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. 2023-05-31 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
• 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.