SEBI v. Kaushal Chandarana and others (Banhem and Ninja front running of Anvil, 2024)

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.

Report an error in this record (sebi-82468-front-running-2024) by email

On 21 March 2024 a SEBI whole-time member found that a person who handled the orders of Anvil Wealth Management's portfolio scheme passed information to Manish Mehta, whose two family firms traded ahead of the orders. The order barred four noticees, ordered Rs 2.23 crore of disgorgement and imposed Rs 70 lakh of penalties.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

—

Penalty as published

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

The final order of 21 March 2024 was issued by a whole-time member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. It names six noticees: Kaushal Chandarana, Manish Mehta, two brokerage companies, Banhem Stock Broking Pvt. Ltd. and Ninja Securities Pvt. Ltd., and two relatives who directed the companies, Kashmira Mehta and Sumatilal Mehta. The trades front run belonged to the Long Only Equity Scheme run by Anvil Wealth Management Pvt. Ltd., a portfolio management provider.

NSE surveillance alerts led to an investigation of March 2020 to September 2022. SEBI alleged that Mr Chandarana, who placed Anvil's orders with brokers by telephone, communicated its impending orders to Mr Mehta, who then had the two companies trade ahead of them. As direct proof of such a tip is rarely available, the order relied on the close connection between the two men, including family-style financial dealings and frequent calls, together with the pattern of the trades.

The order accepted the inference for the first four noticees, found the front running established under section 12A of the SEBI Act and the 2003 fraud and unfair trade practice regulations, and held that the trading accounts of both companies were used. It cleared the two relatives, revoking the interim directions against them and disposing of the proceedings without further direction.

The four were restrained from the securities market for one year (Mr Chandarana), two years (Banhem) and three years (Mr Mehta and Ninja). They were ordered to disgorge Rs 2,23,46,850, made up of Rs 2.05 crore from the Ninja account and Rs 18.6 lakh from the Banhem account, jointly and severally, with 12 percent simple interest from 30 September 2022, and could apply Rs 1.12 crore already in escrow. Penalties were Rs 10 lakh each on Mr Chandarana and Banhem and Rs 25 lakh each on Mr Mehta and Ninja, Rs 70 lakh in all.

The record does not show whether the order was appealed or the sums were recovered, and it describes no criminal case. It does not quantify any loss to Anvil's clients.

This library tags the matter as front running. 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2024-03-21 SEBI final 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.