SAT Grants Interim Relief to Chaubara Eats and Prrsaar Sampada in Cross-Segment F&O Manipulation Case — October 12, 2026

In a notable development concerning derivatives market surveillance, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has granted interim relief to brokerage firm Prrsaar Sampada Private Limited and its connected entity Chaubara Eats Private Limited, permitting them to operate their frozen accounts and liquidate securities.

The decision offers crucial operational leeway to the noticees after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) passed an ex-parte interim order freezing their bank and demat accounts and ordering the impounding of ₹28.12 crore in alleged unlawful gains.

Background of the Regulatory Action

On September 16, 2026, SEBI Whole Time Member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney issued an ex-parte interim order barring six entities—including Prrsaar Sampada, Chaubara Eats, and four directors: Ved Prakash Gupta, Priti Gupta, Saroj Gupta, and Gaurav Tomar—from accessing the securities markets.

The market regulator alleged that the entities engaged in a sophisticated and fraudulent trade practice termed "cross-segment price manipulation" between single-stock futures and stock options contracts on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

SEBI apportioned the alleged wrongful gains as follows: * ₹22.06 crore jointly and severally attributed to Prrsaar Sampada and its directors. * ₹6.06 crore attributed to Chaubara Eats and its directors.

The regulator had directed banks and depositories to freeze debits from their accounts and instructed the entities to deposit the impounded amounts into fixed deposit accounts marked with a lien in favour of SEBI.

The Alleged Manipulation Scheme

According to regulatory findings, the group exploited price relationships across derivatives segments, predominantly focusing on mid-and-small-cap stocks ranking among the bottom 100 derivatives scrips by market capitalization—such as KFin Technologies, Swiggy, Bharat Dynamics, Godrej Properties, and Waaree Energies.

Key Mechanics Highlighted by SEBI:

• Position Setup: The entities pre-positioned large at-the-money options orders around prevailing market prices that remained unexecuted.
• Futures Agitation: They subsequently launched aggressive buy or sell order bursts in the corresponding stock futures, deliberately incurring losses by buying high and selling low to temporarily manipulate the underlying future's price.
• Disproportionate Option Payout: The futures move shifted options premiums, triggering profitable execution of their much larger pre-positioned options positions.
• Volume Migration: When the NSE raised surveillance inquiries with Prrsaar Sampada in February and March 2026, the brokerage's proprietary trading volumes dropped sharply from ₹6,740 crore to ₹746 crore, while trading volumes at family-linked Chaubara Eats jumped from ₹466.95 crore to ₹5,254 crore.

The Move from High Court to SAT

Before approaching the tribunal, Chaubara Eats moved the Delhi High Court challenging the ex-parte directions. The petitioner argued that a sweeping freeze on its accounts without a prior hearing caused severe prejudice and failed to account for offsetting trading losses. Justice Amit Mahajan of the Delhi High Court disposed of the plea, declining to entertain the challenge directly and granting liberty to the company to pursue statutory remedies before the appellate tribunal under Section 15T of the SEBI Act.

Following the high court's directive, the appellants filed appeals before the SAT bench comprising Presiding Officer Justice P. S. Dinesh Kumar and Technical Members Meera Swarup and Dr. Dheeraj Bhatnagar.

In granting interim relief, the tribunal permitted the entities to operate designated accounts and sell securities, ensuring they have the liquidity necessary to function and fulfill regulatory deposit mandates while contesting the prima facie findings of market manipulation.

Tags: Securities Appellate Tribunal SEBI Prrsaar Sampada Chaubara Eats National Stock Exchange Equity Derivatives