Retro Green Revolution: a Telegram pump cost 18 entities ₹5.7 crore and 5-year bans

Retro Green Revolution Ltd was an illiquid smallcap whose shares barely traded. Between September 2020 and December 2021, SEBIs investigation found, entities connected to the Choksi Group traded among themselves to manufacture volume and push up the price, while stock tips circulated on a Telegram channel. Once retail investors bought the story, the connected holders offloaded their illiquid shares to the public, pocketing unlawful gains of a little over ₹2.94 crore.

In a 61-page order passed on March 17, 2026, SEBIs quasi-judicial authority Santosh Shukla penalised all 18 entities between ₹5 lakh and ₹50 lakh each — ₹2.8 crore in total — barred them from the securities market for up to five years, and directed 15 of them to disgorge the ₹2.94 crore of gains with 12% annual interest from December 31, 2021, into the Investor Protection and Education Fund within 45 days.

The heart of the case was control without title: Sanjay Arunkumar Choksi was no longer RGRLs promoter, but the regulator found the company remained under his control because even its statutory payments were being received from his account. SEBI held he did not act in good faith and exploited his influence in the company for personal gain — noticees 1 to 6, with Choksi among them, were found to have created a misleading appearance of trading and manipulated the price.

₹2.8 crore in penalties, ₹2.94 crore disgorged with 12% interest, and market bans of up to five years across 18 entities

Illiquid scrips are structurally easy targets: a handful of matched trades is enough to move both the price and the appearance of activity in a stock that otherwise never trades.

The Telegram channel converted manufactured volume into genuine retail demand — SEBI treated the rise in volume plus the recommendations as indicators that swayed investors into buying.

Exiting the promoter role did not exit the liability: the regulator traced functional control through account flows, so the fines followed influence rather than designation.

Thin stocks are cheap to rig: a few connected accounts manufactured the volume, a Telegram channel manufactured the crowd. And control is functional, not formal — Choksi paid for influence, not title.

The 18 noticees had 45 days to deposit the disgorged gains into SEBIs investor protection fund, and the market bans of up to five years took effect with the order. The scheme was textbook pump-and-offload adapted to the Telegram era: connect a thin stock, churn fake volume among friendly accounts, broadcast tips to a channel audience, then sell into the demand that arrives. SEBIs order leaves little doubt it reads the recommendation channel as part of the manipulation itself, not mere commentary.