Infosys starts probe into insider trading; Sebi bans eight

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has restrained eight entities, including two Infosys employees, from trading in the stock market for their alleged involvement in insider trading in Infosys, for the June quarter of FY21. Infosys said it has ordered an internal investigation against the two employees and action will be taken once it completes the probe.

The value of “illegal gains” to the tune of ~3.06 crore has been impounded from Capital One, Tesora Capital, Amit Bhutra, Ankush Bhutra, Bharath C Jain, and Manish Jain.

Amit and Bharath are working partners of Capital One. Amit, Ankush Bhutra, and Manish Jain are working partners of Tesora. The two Infosys employees are Venkata Subramaniam V V, senior principal, corporate accounting group, and Pranshu Bhutra, senior corporate counsel.

According to Sebi, Pranshu had procured unpublished price-sensitive information from Venkata and so Venkata and Pranshu had prima facie violated the provisions of the Sebi Act and the Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations. Amit was connected with Pranshu through telephonic communications, while Bharath and Amit were connected through professional relationship. Capital One and Tesora had traded in Infosys in the F&O segment just before the announcement of the financial results for Q1FY21, and subsequently squared off their positions such that their net positions were zero.