Panchals made Rs45 crore from 18 IPOs

The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has passed an order against Roopal Panchal and five others for irregular dealings in Initial Public Offer (IPO) during the period 2003-05. In the order issued by SEBI, it is found that six Panchals from the Roopal Panchal family made Rs45 crore from 18 IPOs between 2003 and 2005. SEBI barred six of them from dealings in securities market for manipulations in various IPOs and slapped a penalty of Rs36.09 crore on them.

With Roopal Panchal being the frontrunner in the IPO scam as per SEBI order along with Devangi Panchal, Dipak Panchal, Hina Panchal, Bhargav Panchal and Arjav Panchal, the six persons have made unlawful gains of Rs45.1 crore by transferring shares among themselves and financiers.  The six people made the maximum gain in the IPO of IDFC -- to the tune of Rs25.77 crore -- followed by Dishman IPO where they raked in Rs3.67 crore. Even in the IPO of TCS and NTPC, unlawful gains to the tune of Rs2.14 crore and Rs2.34 crore were made by them.

According to the order, Roopal stated that the depository participant (DP) had approached her with an idea paper and a process flow which would enable her to apply for and obtain more shares than is normally possible in an IPO in a legal manner.

hile Roopal alleged that the DP had induced her to get more shares than permissible, she also admitted that she used thousands of different accounts to make applications in the retail category of IPOs.