🎭 SEBI Said “You’re Clean Bro” – After 13 Years of Paper-Chasing in This ₹0-Crore Scam

📅 Published on: May 24, 2025
✍️ By: Prashant Marathe

🕵️♂️ At a Glance:

Two men.
Four shady companies.
Fake auditors.
Two different annual reports for the same year.
And 13 years of chaos that finally ends with SEBI saying:
“Actually… maybe you weren’t guilty after all.”

Welcome to the SEBI Adjudication Order No. 31412 – 31413, where Chetan Sukhdev Pandit and Prahlad Vithaldas Panchal were accused of being the secret puppet masters behind a multi-company document-forging circus…

…and walked away without a fine.

🎬 Previously On: “Audit Report Chronicles”

Between 2011 and 2018, SEBI probed four “companies” you’ve probably never heard of:

• 🧵 ACIL Cotton Industries Ltd.
• 💳 Universal Credit & Securities Ltd. (UCSL)
• 🧠 Mindvision Capital Ltd. (MCL)
• 🌐 RFL International Ltd.

The investigation said:

Directors filed fraudulent audit reports, misused names of CAs, and ignored summons from SEBI.

So naturally, SEBI prepared to unleash penalties under every Act and Regulation known to Indian law — SEBI Act, PFUTP, LODR, SCRA, you name it.

But here’s the twist…

🧑⚖️ After All That Drama, SEBI Goes: “Actually, We’re Good.”

📜 The Verdict (May 23, 2025):

“Not guilty.”
– SEBI to Chetan & Prahlad

Why?

Because:

• 📬 The summons were never really served properly (one address didn’t exist, one was a 20-year-old rental, others were under redevelopment)
• ✍️ Their signatures were forged — even the name “Prahlad” became “Prahalal”
• 🧾 Different annual reports were filed with BSE and ROC, showing different signatories
• 🕴️ No concrete proof of active involvement in the fraud
• 🧘♂️ They were non-executive directors with no attendance, no records, no trail

🧪 Forensic Twist: Same Audit, Two Realities

One version had a balance sheet signed by the accused.
The other didn’t.

We’re not auditors, but that smells like document cloning.

📣 What The Accused Said

Both Chetan Pandit and Prahlad Panchal went full courtroom Bollywood: