Rama Bijapurkar penalised for 'inadvertent trade'

New Delhi: Consumer markets consultant and then independent director, Rama Bijapurkar's independent financial adviser purchased 4,900 equity shares of ICICI Bank in her account without prior intimation to her when the trading window was closed on January 5.

The Audit Committee of ICICI Bank was notified of this incident. Based on Bijapurkar's submission, it is concluded that this was an inadvertent trade made without any intent to violate the Bank's Code on Prohibition of Insider Trading (Bank's ·Code) or the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (SEBI Regulations), ICICI Bank said in a disclosure last week.

However, as there was an infraction of the Bank's Code and the SEBI Regulations, a penalty of Rs2 lakh has been imposed on the Independent Director upon confirmation by the Audit Committee at its meeting held on January 22 and the said amount shall be remitted to Investor Protection Education Fund (IPEF) in accordance with the SEBI Regulations. The "Inadvertent trade by Designated Person" development came two days after Bijapurkar resigned from the board of ICICI Bank citing teaching assignments.

"It is with regret that I submit my resignation from the board of ICICI Bank Ltd. I have recently been given to understand by management that my teaching activity in the area of market and business strategy at an educational institution with which I am associated and my research activities on India's consumer economy at a not for profit research centre with which I am associated, which may require me to occasionally engage with other financial service companies or the investor community, could be in violation of the conflict of interest policy of the Bank and the regulator, even in the event of no direct remuneration being earned," Bijapurkar said in her resignation letter on January 20.