SEBI fined an analyst Rs 15 lakh for sharing unpublished price-sensitive information about Asian Paints on WhatsApp. The regulator ordered the fine on Monday on a Neeraj Agarwal. In an earlier order in April, SEBI had fined Agarwal, and another analyst, Shruti Vora, the same amount each for sharing price-sensitive information about Ambuja Cement. In November 2017, Reuters published a report about Indian "Market Chatter" groups on WhatsApp, where many companies' financial results were released early, and matched the actual results almost exactly. SEBI's investigation into the groups, launched after Reuters's report, led to these orders. SEBI obtained evidence in the case by seizing Vora's iPhone, which contained the WhatsApp messages. WhatsApp told SEBI that it would not be able to trace the origin of the messages due to end-to-end encryption. The regulator noted that due to this constraint as well as the fact that messages were deleted, it was not able to trace who the originator of the messages in this case was. However, SEBI proceeded with the investigation by designating Agarwal as an insider, and said it did not matter who the source of the information was to make this designation. Agarwal claimed that he was using publicly available brokerage data, but SEBI countered that the brokerage estimates he referred to had multiple analysts' guesses, and Agarwal picked estimates that were close enough to the published results to be deemed insider information. Agarwal also used a free speech argument, saying "What was being circulated was mere opinion on…
