SEBI v. Arun Kumar Somani and others (alleged insider trading, Indian Oil Corporation, 2025)

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.

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A SEBI adjudicating officer examined allegations that a senior finance manager at Indian Oil told his in-laws about quarterly results and a dividend before announcement, and that they traded derivatives ahead of it. He found the evidence insufficient and disposed of the proceedings without penalty.

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

On 26 August 2025 a SEBI adjudicating officer issued an order in the matter of suspected insider trading in Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL). The noticees were Arun Kumar Somani, a senior finance manager at IOCL treated as a designated person, and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Ramesh Chand Gupta and Tara Devi Gupta. SEBI had looked at trading between 3 October and 15 November 2023.

IOCL announced its September 2023 quarter results and a Rs 5 per share interim dividend on 31 October 2023, after which the price rose, with a cumulative rise of about 18 per cent by 7 November. SEBI alleged that Mr Somani was involved in finalising the results, communicated the unpublished price sensitive information to Mr Gupta, and that Mr and Mrs Gupta traded while holding it. The notice of 31 October 2024 alleged communicating and trading on price sensitive information under the PIT Regulations and the fraud limbs of section 12A, with penalties under section 15G sought.

The officer did not find the allegations proved on the balance of probabilities. He compared the Guptas' trades in the information period with their wider record and found them consistent with a pattern of regular, sizeable derivatives trading in IOCL since 2020, not isolated or outlying, and that they had started taking positions before the information existed. Their profit and loss in the stock had been mixed, with a net loss in the financial year that included the period. He concluded there was not enough to show that Mr Somani communicated the information, so the trading charge against the Guptas fell with it.

The proceedings were disposed of without any monetary penalty and with no directions against any of the three.

The record does not show whether SEBI appealed. The order says nothing proving or disproving a conversation about the results beyond the lack of evidence it relied on. It is a dismissal at the adjudication stage and not a finding of innocence or guilt.

This library tags the matter as insider trading. 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2025-08-26 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.