Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi has moved Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) challenging Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) order to bar 45 entities, including him and his wife Maria Goretti, from securities market for allegedly manipulating the share price of Sadhna Boradcast.
The tribunal has listed the matter for March 17.
The Bollywood actor, who has acted in well-known movies like Munna Bhai MBBS, Golmaal, Dedh Ishqiya and Jolly LLB, will be represented at SAT by Regstreet Law Advisors, which has been founded by Sumit Agrawal, a former legal officer of Sebi.
The Sebi order came on the back of a probe that allegedly found that entities uploaded misleading videos on YouTube channels and recommended investors to buy shares of Sadhna Broadcast Ltd and Sharpline Broadcast.
Apart from the actor couple, some of the promoters of Sadhna Broadcast have also been restrained from the securities market for their alleged involvement.
In addition to the market ban, the regulator has impounded illegal gains totaling Rs 54 crore made by the entities after misleading videos were uploaded on YouTube channels, according to two separate interim orders.
In the case of Sadhna Broadcast, Sebi noted that Arshad Warsi made a profit of Rs 29.43 lakh and his wife earned profit of Rs 37.56 lakh. Further, Iqbal Hussain Warsi gained Rs 9.34 lakh.
These three, among others, have been classified as volume creators by the capital markets regulator.
Soon after the Sebi order, Warsi tweeted that his “knowledge about stocks is zero”. “Please do not believe everything you read in the news. Maria and my knowledge about stocks is zero, took advice and invested in Sharda, and like many other, lost all our hard earned money,” he had tweeted.
The Sebi probe was triggered after the regulator received complaints alleging that misleading YouTube videos with false content about the two companies were uploaded to lure investors.
Incidentally, one of the misleading videos on the YouTube channels said that Sadhna Broadcast will be taken over by Adani Group and post the deal, the margins of the company would increase.