SEBI v. Prakash Pusaram Laddha and others (Setubandhan Infrastructure Ltd, 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.
On 6 May 2024 a SEBI chief general manager found that Setubandhan Infrastructure Ltd inflated its sales and purchases through fictitious vendor trades and misstated balances over four financial years. Two directors were barred from the market for two years and each penalised Rs 25 lakh, while a third noticee's case abated on his death.
The record
| Agency | SEBI (India) |
|---|---|
| Date filed | 2024-05-06 |
| Date resolved | 2024-05-06 |
| Court | SEBI executive director / chief general manager |
| Status | judgment |
| Asset class | equities |
| Instruments | Setubandhan Infrastructure Ltd shares |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Bars imposed | Two directors restrained from the securities market for two years, Both barred from director and key management roles for one year |
| Defendants | Prakash Pusaram Laddha ; Prafulla Subhashchandra Bhat ; Trichur Ganpat Krishnan ; Setubandhan Infrastructure Limited |
| Techniques | Misleading issuer disclosure |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- —
- Disgorgement
- —
- Prejudgment interest
- —
- Total relief
- —
- Alleged gain
- —
- Penalty as published
- 5m INR
What is alleged to have happened
The order of 6 May 2024 was issued by a chief general manager of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The show cause notice of November 2022 named four noticees: Setubandhan Infrastructure Ltd, a Nashik-based infrastructure company; Prakash Pusaram Laddha, who held several director roles and chaired the board; Prafulla Subhashchandra Bhat, a whole-time director from 2017 to 2020; and Trichur Ganpat Krishnan, the former managing director.
SEBI had a forensic auditor examine the books for 2016-17 to 2019-20. The allegations were misrepresentation of financials by fictitious purchases and sales, diversion of funds to connected entities through payments for fictitious purchases, misstated closing balances, undisclosed related-party transactions, trading with connected vendors at nominal profit or loss, improper write-offs, and unrecovered old advances.
The order found that the trading with certain vendors was fictitious and inflated revenue by about Rs 137.54 crore and purchases by about Rs 220.24 crore, which it put at roughly 15 percent of revenue and 67 percent of purchases. It found payables understated by about Rs 26.44 crore in 2016-17 and misutilisation of company assets in dealings with connected parties. It held that Mr Laddha and Mr Bhat had breached the 2003 fraud and unfair trade practice regulations, section 12A of the SEBI Act and the listing-disclosure regulations.
Mr Laddha and Mr Bhat were each restrained from the securities market for two years and from director and key management roles for one year. Each received a penalty of Rs 15 lakh under section 15HA and Rs 10 lakh under section 15HB, so Rs 50 lakh in total. The proceedings against Mr Krishnan abated, and the order was to be sent to his legal representatives. The directions do not mention the company.
The record does not show whether anyone appealed or paid, and the order describes no criminal case.
This library tags the matter as misleading issuer disclosure. 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.
- Misleading issuer disclosure — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Timeline
- 2024-05-06 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.
Related actions
Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.