Vellayan exits two posts on Sebi charge

After being charged by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for insider trading on Thursday, A Vellayan on Friday said he had stepped aside as the executive chairman of the Murugappa corporate board and chairman of Coromandel International.

“In keeping with family value and tradition, he has stepped aside from the chairmanship of the Murugappa group corporate board and of Coromandel International and EID Parry India until this matter is resolved,” an official communique said from Vellayan’s office.

In its order, Sebi said Vellayan, chairman of Coromandel International, and his relative A R Murugappan, seemed to have passed on unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) to two individuals (Gopalkrishanan C and V Karuppiah) in the matter of acquiring Sabero Organic Gujarat.

“...Prima facie it appears that the trading by Gopalkrishnan was based on the knowledge of UPSI. Further, the trading of Karuppiah (HUF) also appear to be based on the knowledge of UPSI...it appears that the UPSI had passed on from Vellayan and Murugappan,” Sebi said in its order.

Reacting to the order, the statement from Vellayan’s office further said: “The Sebi order linking Vellayan, chairman of the Murugappa Group, to trades by two individuals in shares of Sabero Organics Gujarat, a company that was acquired by Coromandel International in May 2011, is based merely on suspicion and is a far-fetched tenuous conjecture.”
The release said “the link drawn in this interim order is not a conclusive finding”.