Can give our NDTV shares as guarantee: Promoters to SC

NDTV PROMOTERS Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy on Thursday told the Supreme Court that they are prepared to give their shares in the company as guarantee to comply with the Securities Appellate Tribunal direction to deposit 50 per cent of the amount which the Securities and Exchange Board of India concluded were illegal gains made by them through insider trading.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde told Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi that the Tribunal may not hear them again unless they give some security.

Rohatgi replied that they don’t have any money but were willing to give an undertaking that shares which they hold in NDTV will not be transferred.

“We don’t have any other money. We are a struggling news channel. We are badly hit,” he told the Bench also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramaian.

CJI Bobde sought to know the value of the shares. Another counsel appearing for the promoters pointed out the day’s value and said the total value of the shares held by the two would exceed the 50 per cent directed to be deposited by the SAT.

Rohatgi said he would file a statement of the shares in the court following which the bench fixed the matter for hearing next on February 1. SEBI had in November barred the Roys from the securities market for two years and directed them to disgorge illegal gains of Rs 16.97 crore for indulging in insider trading over 12 years ago. NDTV said the order “is based on an inaccurate assessment of facts”.

The SAT has fixed their appeals against the SEBI order for hearing on February 10.