Former Chandamama owners are barred from the capital market for a year by Sebi.

 

For embezzling $125 million raised through foreign currency convertible bonds, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued an order on December 19 that effectively barred the magazine's former owners from the securities market for a year (FCCBs).

According to the order, "the Notice nos. 1 (Pankaj Kumar, Chairman, and Director of Geodesic Limited), 2 (Prashant Mulekar, Director and Compliance Officer of Geodesic Limited), and 3 (Kiran Kulkarni, Managing Director of Geodesic Limited) are prohibited from accessing the securities market and further from buying, selling, or otherwise transacting in securities, directly or indirectly, or from being associated with the securities market in any way, for a period of one year from the date of this order”.

When the Bombay High Court decided to order the liquidation of Geodesic Ltd. roughly 10 years ago, Chandamama India Ltd., one of Geodesic Ltd.'s five subsidiaries, was put up for sale.

After receiving a letter from the Bombay High Court's Company Registrar in 2016, Sebi launched the investigation. The letter informed the market regulator of a High Court ruling in HDFC Bank Ltd v. Geodesic Ltd, wherein the court instructed the market regulator and the Enforcement Directorate to take action against directors of Geodesic Ltd and their tax advisor Dinesh Jajodia.