New Delhi: The Securities Appellate Tribunal on Tuesday upheld regulator Sebi's order that barred CG Power ex-chairman Gautam Thapar and three other former officials from capital markets for misstatement of accounts as well as funds diversion.
Besides, the tribunal ruled that the appellants are entitled for supply of documents from the company so that they may file an appropriate reply before Sebi and that denial of such documents by the company or by Sebi would be in violation of principles of natural justice as embodied in Article 14 of the Constitution of India. In a statement, Thapar said, "We note that this morning's order of the Securities Appellate Tribunal gives clear directions to SEBI and CG Power to give us access to the documents which CG Power has denied and have been unwilling to provide till date."
"We continue to maintain the fact that we had no opportunity to participate in the so-called 'investigation' nor in the resulting 'report' (Vaish). This Vaish Associates report is inconclusive and highly disclaimed as only selective information and data was shared with them."
The order comes on an appeal filed by ex officials of CG Power - Gautam Thapar, V R Venkatesh, Madhav Acharya, B Hariharan and Avantha Holdings Ltd - against an "ex-parte ad interim order" passed by Sebi on September 17, 2019. V R Venkatesh is the former CFO, while Madhav Acharya and B Hariharan are ex-directors of CG Power.