Authority: Adjudicating Officer, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

Order Date: July 28, 2026

Case Overview

SEBI initiated adjudication proceedings against 13 noticees concerning alleged market manipulation in the scrip of Akash Infra-Projects Limited (AIPL) from November 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022. The investigation focused on a coordinated scheme to post buy recommendations on Telegram channels to induce retail investors to buy shares, facilitating net sellers to offload their holdings at artificially inflated prices for wrongful gains.

The core allegations involved violations of Section 12A(a), (b), and (c) of the SEBI Act, 1992, read with Regulations 3(a), (b), (c), (d) and 4(1), 4(2)(a), (k), & (r) of the SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market) Regulations, 2003 (PFUTP Regulations).

A Show Cause Notice (SCN) was issued on April 29, 2025. After considering replies and conducting hearings, the Adjudicating Officer found that the violations were established only against Noticees 6, 7, and 8 (Amesh Surajlal Jaiswal, Jalaj Agrawal, and Arvind Shukla). Allegations against the other noticees, including promoters/directors of AIPL and net sellers, were dropped due to a lack of sufficient corroborative evidence.

The scheme involved Noticee 6 (Amesh Jaiswal) instructing Noticee 7 (Jalaj Agrawal) via WhatsApp to arrange for stock recommendations. Noticee 7 then instructed Noticee 8 (Arvind Shukla), who operated several large Telegram channels, to post specific buy recommendations for AIPL. Noticee 8 admitted to operating channels including 'Sure means Sure' (over 9 lakh subscribers), 'Intraday Share Trading Equity Stock', and 'Intraday Share Training Stock' (10 lakh subscribers).

Recommendations were posted on February 11, 15, 17, and 18, 2022 (the Telegram recommendation phase). The messages contained false and misleading claims, such as 'upper circuit in 3 days' and '40% returns in 7 days,' and advised buying 2000-5000 shares within a price range of ₹196-210.

Noticee 7 received a commission of ₹5 lakh from Noticee 6 for this service, paid into the bank account of M/s. Life Line Pharma. Noticee 8 received ₹20,000-₹30,000 per day from Noticee 7. Call Data Records (CDR) and WhatsApp chats extracted from seized devices confirmed extensive communication between the three noticees during the manipulation period.

The manipulation had a material impact on the market for AIPL shares. The number of unique trading entities surged from 508 (10 days prior) to 6,690 during the recommendation phase. The number of public shareholders skyrocketed from 1,639 on February 11 to 5,185 on February 18. The scrip's closing price rose by 5.21% from ₹191.8 (Feb 10) to ₹201.8 (Feb 18), and trading volumes spiked significantly on the days recommendations were posted compared to non-recommendation days. The price subsequently collapsed to ₹23.65 by July 1, 2022.

Final Outcome

The Adjudicating Officer found that Noticees 6, 7, and 8 acted in a coordinated manner to execute a manipulative scheme, violating the provisions of the SEBI Act and PFUTP Regulations. They are held jointly and severally liable for the violations.

A monetary penalty of ₹20,00,000 (Twenty Lakh Rupees) is imposed upon them under Section 15HA of the SEBI Act. The penalty must be paid within 45 days of receipt of the order. SEBI may initiate recovery proceedings under Section 28A of the SEBI Act in case of non-payment.

The allegations against all other noticees (Noticees 1-5, 9-13) are dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Topics: Market Manipulation, Telegram Pump-and-Dump, SEBI Enforcement