Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Board of India barred NDTV chairman Prannoy Roy and managing director Radhika Roy from accessing the securities market for two years, and barred them from holding any key managerial personnel or directorship in NDTV for two years. The SEBI order comes into force with immediate effect.

Indian Express reports: “In an order, Sebi said they failed ‘to conform to the fair and transparent principles of trades in the securities market’ in a case relating to transfer of NDTV shares.”

The order said: “The way loan agreements have been used to deceitfully transfers shares of NDTV up to 30 per cent to Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) without the knowledge of NDTV board or its shareholders, it can be held that the acts of the noticees (Prannoy Roy, Radhika Roy and their firm RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd) are in stark violation of Regulation 4(1) of PFUTP Regulations, being unfair trade practices.”

In a statement, Radhika and Prannoy Roy said they found the order ” outrageous, bad in law and against all procedures. It is, for example, unheard of that the order contains false decisions on issues that were not even mentioned in the show cause notice.” The statement added that the Roys would challenge the order in court.