India's markets regulator said on Friday it had dropped a case of alleged insider trading in the shares of Adani Green Energy against Pranav Adani, director of several Adani group companies and nephew of its billionaire founder Gautam.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India had said it was investigating whether Pranav Adani shared information about Adani Green's May 2021 acquisition of SoftBank-backed SB Energy Holdings with his brother-in-law before the deal was announced.
Reuters reported in May that SEBI alleged in a regulatory notice that the sharing of price sensitive information breached regulations aimed at preventing insider trading.
Pranav Adani had previously told Reuters in an emailed response that "he has not violated any securities law".
The Adani Group had no immediate comment.
SEBI's Friday order dismissed the allegations on the grounds that its investigations could not establish that Pranav Adani had communicated unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) with his brother-in-law Kunal Shah in May 2021.
Trades in Adani Green shares in May 2021 by Kunal Shah and his brother Nrupal Shah were consistent with their usual trading pattern, SEBI said.
SEBI's order also mentioned multiple news reports referring to the upcoming deal prior to a share purchase agreement on May 19, concluding that information was not UPSI and generally available.
SEBI also dismissed a case of alleged insider trading in shares of Adani Green against Vinod Bahety, CEO of Adani Cements, who in May 2021 headed mergers and acquisitions for Adani Group.
