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Sebi to speed up probe into Tata Fin

Rakesh P Sharma & Janaki Krishnan

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is expected to speed up its investigation into the alleged insider trading by J E Talaulicar, former chairman of Niskalp Investment and Trading, the erstwhile subsidiary of Tata Finance.

According to senior Sebi officials, the market watchdog will fasten its probe as Tata Finance has forwarded the Kale committee report on the case to the regulator.

TFL had set up an independent committee headed by Y M Kale, management consultant and senior partner A F Ferguson & Co, to examine charges of insider trading against Talaulicar.

The other members of the committee were J K Setna, director, Tata Sons, and Kishore Chaukar, vice-chairman, Tata Finance.

Sebi had sometime back written to the TFL management asking for a copy of the report. However, the company management preferred to take its own time, saying that it had to be put up to its board first.

TFL officials had also said that they would exercise their prerogative in whether the report should be forwarded to Sebi at all.

Sources do not see the Sebi response overnight as the capital market watchdog is busy with the joint parliamentary committee depositions slated for later this week.

According to TFL, with evidence of insider trading by Talaulicar having been established by the Kale committee, it was up to Sebi to come up with its own findings and take appropriate action. Sebi has already indicated that prima facie its own findings were on the same lines as the Kale panel report.

Meanwhile, Sebi officials said that the probe into the insider trading charges against Talaulicar is independent of the findings of the Kale committee.

"The Kale committee report will be a primary source of information for completing our probe, which will be independent of their (Tatas') findings," Sebi officials said.

The Sebi probe will also establish whether the transaction was indeed backdated or not and whether the broker violated any regulations in this regard, officials said.

The findings of the committee may or may not have any legal binding on the group but "Sebi's findings in the case would have legal implications", independent company law experts said.

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