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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Yesterday afternoon, Jane Street would have heaved a sigh of relief, having just managed to purchase some crucial time for itself. By the conclude of the first hearing of the US-based hedge fund giant’s appeal against Sebi’s July findings, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) had directed the market regulator to file its reply within three weeks and posted the next hearing to 18 November. That’s more than two months away. Is tareekh pe tareekh (adjournment after adjournment) in store for this case too, like it is so many in India? Who knows? Meanwhile, the knives are well and truly out.
Essentially, Jane Street wants Sebi to give it a long list of additional documents. These, it states, are crucial for its defence against the regulator’s 3 July interim order, a watershed in the Indian capital market.
I had written about this a couple of months ago.
In the meticulous interim order by whole-time member Ananth Narayan G (on 3 July), Sebi laid out in great detail how the US-based hedge-fund giant carried out elaborate, massive manipulation in India’s stock market and derivatives (options) trades since 2023. The regulator has now banned the Jane Street group from the Indian securities markets and ordered it to disgorge the over Rs 4,800 crore it created in unlawful gains—the largest such penalty ever imposed by Sebi. More could follow with the probe continuing.
The Ken had broken the story in January 2025 about a mystery fund playing God and wreaking havoc on India’s stock market. We followed this up with a story in June 2025 pointing to Jane Street as the all-powerful hand in India’s stock market. “Sebi’s action is vindication,” stated Mayank Bansal, the Dubai-based options trader who had alerted The Ken about the rampant, large-scale manipulation.
Did NSE sleep at the wheel in the Jane Street saga?, The Ken
Sebi is in no mood to oblige Jane Street more than it already has. It notified the SAT as much—calling Jane Street’s plea a “fishing expedition”, Sebi stated that it will not provide any documents that it had not relied upon for passing the interim order. It also notified the SAT that the investigation against Jane Street is at a critical juncture and ongoing, and that the final order on the matter could be much wider than the interim one.
SAT, in its wisdom, directed Sebi to file a reply on why it cannot share any more documents.
Jane Street has reason to breathe straightforward, for now. While it paid the Rs 4,800-odd crore soon after the interim order, its lawyers Khaitan & Co filed an appeal with SAT just days before its personal hearing with Sebi was to happen on 15 September. That hearing, if it had taken place, might not have gone well for Jane Street. The Sebi hearing has now been stayed until SAT hears the matter on 18 November. Ananth Narayan G, who wrote the interim order, will have left Sebi by then, unless he receives an extension; his three-year term concludes in October. That means Sebi will head into that hearing without its spearhead in the case, so to speak.
Speaking of which, its appeal with SAT reveals Jane Street’s demand for additional documents from Sebi has an interesting backstory.
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