The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has banned the promoters of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) from the securities market for more than two years and have imposed penalties of around Rs 8.20 Crores for various breaches.

The market regulator imposed a fine of Rs 4 Crores on DCHL, Rs 1.30 Crores each on T.Venkattram Reddy, T. Vinayak Ravi Reddy, Rs 20 lakh on N Krishnan and Rs 10 lakh on V Shankar. “We restrain T. Venkattram Reddy, T. Vinayak Ravi Reddy, PK Iyer, N Krishnan and V Shankar from accessing the securities market and ban them from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, or being associated with the securities market in a manner for a period ranging from one year to two years,” SEBI said in a statement.

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The SEBI directions follow a probe conducted by the market regulator between October 2011 to December 2012 wherein various violations of Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) and insider trading regulations were found. It was found that DCHL has underreported the loan amounts, interest payments and finance charges in the books of accounts of the company during the financial year 2008-09 to 2010-11 and have misled the investors and shareholders by such manipulated financials of the company and transferred the outstanding loans in the books of DCM.