The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) recently found no evidence of wrongdoing against Arshad Warsi and his family members in the stock-rigging case. It called the order of the Securities and Exchange Board of India as “passed in haste”, “without considering the essential facts” and even an “act malice”. It reversed the SEBI order substantially. The actor had appealed to the SAT against the SEBI order. He was represented at SAT by Regstreet Law Advisors.
The SEBI on March 2, 2023 had banned 31 entities, including Arshad Warsi and his wife, Maria Goretti, from the market. The move came after “misleading” videos were uploaded on two YouTube channels, luring investors to buy the shares of Sadhna Broadcast which itself was also banned, alongwith its promoters. SEBI also impounded illegal gains of Rs. 41.90 crore made after the videos were uploaded. Arshad reportedly made gains of Rs. 29.40 lakh while Maria profited by Rs. 37.60 lakh.
Subsequent to the release of the videos, there was an increase in the price and trading volume of the Sadhna scrip. In this period, certain promoter shareholders, key management people of Sadhna and non-promoter shareholders offloaded a significant part of their holdings at inflated prices and booked profits. One of the misleading videos on the two YouTube channels was that Sadhna Broadcast was going to be taken over by Adani Group. Another video claimed that a large US corporation had entered into a contract to produce four devotional movies with Sadhna Broadcast.
The SAT asked Arshad to deposit 50% in escrow and give undertaking for the balance. It laid down elaborate guidelines for passing such restraint orders and said, freezing of bank accounts and assets and debarment of persons from securities markets was a serious restraint on freedom but yet, was routinely done, that too en masse, against a group of people without any discrimination or differentiation.