India's market regulator bars Brightcom CEO, CFO from holding director post

FILE PHOTO: A bird flies past the new logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) at its headquarters in Mumbai

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's market regulator on Tuesday barred Brightcom Group's two top executives from holding directorial positions over irregularities in the marketing firm's preferential share allotments.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), said in an interim order that the group's Chief Executive Officer M Suresh Kumar Reddy and Chief Financial Officer Narayan Raju will cease to hold positions of a director in any listed company or its units, until further orders.

SEBI said that it found "manipulations" carried out by Brightcom in its preferential allotments, and restrained Reddy from buying, selling or dealing in securities.

In June, SEBI imposed a penalty of 4 million rupees ($48,204.39) on six entities, including the group, over alleged disclosure and code of conduct violations.

The Hyderabad-based company was embroiled in various disputes with the market regulator in the past, including concerns over overstating profits in its financial documents.

($1 = 82.9800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng)