Regstreet Law Advisors is pleased to announce the complete exoneration of Mr. Himanshu Gupta, a respected market anchor and guest expert on ZEE Business, in the matter involving stock recommendations on ZEE Business Channel.
Mr. Gupta was the sole individual among 15 noticees to be fully discharged by SEBI, in the specific facts, with all allegations dropped and no penalties or adverse directions issued. The proceedings arose from SEBI’s Interim Order cum Show Cause Notice dated February 8, 2024, which alleged an advance-sharing scheme of non-public stock recommendations aired by guest experts on ZEE Business. These recommendations were purportedly passed to certain trading entities, dubbed “Profit Makers,” enabling them to front-run trades before the recommendations went live.
While SEBI subsequently issued settlement orders against 10 noticees and passed final orders against 4 others, Mr. Himanshu Gupta’s case stood out for the absence of incriminating evidence. Owing to the distinct factual matrix in his matter and a lack of proof of involvement or benefit, SEBI dropped all proceedings against him, without imposing any penalty or direction.
Mr. Gupta was represented by Mr. Sumit Agrawal, Managing Partner, Mr. Kavish Garach, Senior Associate from Regstreet Law Advisors, along with Mr. Varun Lamba, Partner from AZB & Partners, and Advocate Siddharth Kaushik.
This order is especially significant from a legal due process standpoint and marks an important development in SEBI’s approach to digital communications such as WhatsApp in securities enforcement. As elaborated in 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡 32 of the final order, WhatsApp chats between third parties mentioning a person (e.g., sharing their name, number, or photo) alone cannot be treated as credible or conclusive evidence to implicate that person in a securities fraud or suggest any profit-sharing nexus. While this evidentiary principle is well established in anti-corruption jurisprudence, SEBI had historically taken a more expansive view in interim orders and show cause notices. In the securities market, it’s often said that SEBI’s orders are always against the accused – almost a 100% hit rate.
This order reaffirms the necessity of fairness, clear proof over suspicion, conjecture, or associative references, providing a much-needed course correction in regulatory enforcement. Due to the ex parte interim order, Mr. Gupta unfortunately experienced loss of employment and damage to his reputation.
A copy of the SEBI order is avaialble at https://lnkd.in/dsaBPKXt for reference.
Feel free to write to Regstreet Law Advisors on info@regstreetlaw.com.
