Mumbai, January 2

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore and Rs 15 crore, respectively, on Reliance Industries (RIL) and its Chairman Mukesh Ambani for manipulative trading.

The SEBI order observed that RIL entered into a well-planned operation with its agents to corner the open interest in the RPL (Reliance Petroleum) futures and to earn undue profits from the sale of RPL shares in both cash and futures segments and to dump large number of these in the cash segment during the last 10 minutes of trading on the settlement day, resulting in a fall in the settlement price. The case pertains to 2007. It also observed that Mukesh Ambani, being the Chairman & Managing Director of RIL, was responsible for its day-to-day affairs and thereby liable for the “manipulative trading” done by the RIL. — IANS