Sun Pharma, Shanghvi settle norms flouting case with Sebi

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and its senior officials, including Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi, settled with regulator Sebi a case pertaining to alleged violation of listing obligation and disclosure requirements norms.

According to separate settlement orders, Sun Pharmaceutical paid over Rs 56.11 lakh towards settlement charges and Shanghvi paid Rs 62.35 lakh.

Besides, the firm's whole-time directors - Sudhir V Valia and Sailesh T Desai - paid Rs 37.41 lakh each, and Kalyanasundaram Subramanian had to remit a settlement amount of Rs 36.97 lakh. In addition, Chief Financial Officer Uday Baldota and compliance officers - Sunil Ajmera and Ashok I Bhuta - paid their respective settlement amounts which were in the range of Rs 18.48 lakh to Rs 24.65 lakh.

Sebi had received two whistleblower complaints, wherein allegations were made against Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (SPIL) and its whollyowned subsidiary Sun Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd (SPLL), alleging that the firms had been diverting funds through its sole distributor in India, Aditya Medisales Ltd.

Further, it was alleged that transactions with Aditya Medisales Ltd (AML) were ongoing for several years. However, the firm was disclosed as a related party of SPIL only in the financial year 2017-18.

"In view of the same, forensic audit was conducted in the matter followed by investigation. Sebi observed during investigation that AML was a related party of SPIL even before the scheme of amalgamation.

"However, the relevant compliance(s) pertaining to related parties, as required under the following provisions of SEBI (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015...were not made by SPIL (with respect to AML)," Sebi said.