SEBI v. Aakash Doshi and others (Telegram tips, Darshan Orna Limited, 2026)

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-101474-social-media-ramps-2026) by email

A SEBI adjudicating officer re-decided in May 2026, after remand by the Securities Appellate Tribunal, a case alleging price manipulation of Darshan Orna Limited using Telegram tips in 2021 and 2022. The order again imposes penalties, Rs 2.9 crore on three members of one group and Rs 20 lakh on a second pair, each paid jointly and severally.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

—

Penalty as published

31m 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 adjudication order of 15 May 2026 follows an earlier order of 30 July 2025 against the same five people. The Securities Appellate Tribunal sent the matter back between November and December 2025 for fresh consideration, with all contentions left open, so a different adjudicating officer in Mumbai heard it again. The noticees are Aakash Doshi, Kevin Kapadia, Dilip Doshi, Richi Dilip Doshi and Kruti Kevin Kapadia.

SEBI's investigation covered trading in Darshan Orna Limited, a listed jewellery company, from September 2021 to June 2022, after stock recommendations were circulated on a Telegram channel. The show-cause notice of 2 July 2024 alleged that the noticees took part in price manipulation using those recommendations, in breach of section 12A of the SEBI Act and the PFUTP Regulations.

After the rehearing, which included inspection of documents and requests for cross-examination, the order finds the allegations established. It rejects arguments that some trades were too small to matter and that gains could only be counted in the days after the Telegram posts, and it relies on trading patterns and fund transfers between noticees and a person who received calls from Mr Aakash Doshi. It does not quantify any investor loss and finds no earlier violations on record, though an interim order of June 2023 had already been made against two noticees.

Under section 15HA the order imposes Rs 90 lakh on Mr Aakash Doshi, Rs 1.4 crore on Mr Dilip Doshi and Rs 60 lakh on Ms Richi Doshi, Rs 2.9 crore in total payable jointly and severally by the three, and Rs 10 lakh each on Mr Kevin Kapadia and Ms Kruti Kapadia, Rs 20 lakh jointly and severally. The total of the two groups is Rs 3.1 crore. No restraint or disgorgement appears in this order, which the record treats as a penalty-only adjudication.

The record does not show whether the noticees appealed again, or any payment. It describes no criminal case.

This library tags the matter as social media ramps and price manipulation. 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.

• Social media ramps — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2026-05-15 SEBI adjudication order imposing penalties after remand

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
• SEBI order (PDF)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 8, 2026. submit a correction.