July 31 (Reuters) – India’s markets regulator on Friday imposed penalties totalling 14.8 million Indian rupees ($155,168.80) on Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), Chief Executive Punit Goenka and Founder-Chairman Emeritus Subhash Chandra for securities law violations.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also barred Goenka and Chandra from the securities market for one year.
• SEBI’s investigation, which stemmed from missing title deeds of a company property, found that the ZEEL land had been used as security for loans taken by large shareholder-linked entities without proper approvals.
• ZEEL’s property was deployed for the benefit of related entities and the arrangement was not disclosed to the company’s board, audit committee, shareholders or investors, SEBI found.
• Goenka was fined 5.8 million rupees and Chandra 6 million.
• ZEEL was fined 3 million rupees and barred from the securities market for two months.
• ZEEL operates television channels, including Zee TV and Zee Cinema, and online streaming platform Zee5.
• Earlier this year, ZEEL secured rights to broadcast the 2026 FIFA World Cup in India.
($1 = 95.3800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Barcelona; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Joyjeet Das)
