Sebi has restrained managing director Ravindra Doshi, chief executive officer Chaitanya Doshi and chief financial officer Kashmira Doshi from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in Kore Digital shares until further orders. The regulator has also barred the company and the three individuals from accessing the securities market to raise money from the public.
Sebi also directed NSE not to allow Kore Digital to migrate from the NSE Emerge SME platform to the main board until it receives regulatory clearance. A forensic auditor will be appointed to examine the company’s books from the date of its listing in June 2023 until March 31, 2026.
At the centre of Sebi findings are three companies acquired by Kore Digital — Franken Telecom, Wolter Infratech and KDL Realinfra — whose revenues were subsequently consolidated into Kore’s financial statements.
The regulator said these subsidiaries and their step-down subsidiaries accounted for a large part of Kore’s reported growth. Kore’s revenue from operations rose from Rs 21.27 crore in FY23 to Rs 408 crore in FY26. On average, around 75% of consolidated revenue came from subsidiaries.
According to the interim order, Kore’s consolidated financial statements were prima facie misstated by around Rs 541.3 crore during FY25 and FY26, representing roughly 73% of its total revenue over the period.
The regulator noted that the three subsidiaries had been incorporated only months before Kore acquired them. They shared the same registered address and had either little or no filing history with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.GST registrations of Franken and Wolter were cancelled shortly after registration, while KDL Realinfra’s registration became inactive on the same day it was registered, according to the order.
Surprise site visits conducted by NSE in June 2026 also failed to establish the presence of these companies at their stated addresses. Similar findings were recorded for several step-down subsidiaries and entities that had financial transactions with Kore.
Sebi’s examination also raised serious concerns about the audit records of the subsidiaries.
CA Riya Goyal, whose name appeared on financial statements submitted as audited accounts of the subsidiaries for FY25, told Sebi that she had only certified provisional financial statements and had not conducted their statutory audit.
Sebi said this prima facie indicated that the audit reports carrying her signature and stamp were forged.
In another case, limited review reports attributed to CA Nikhil Gupta carried UDIN numbers that were generated only after Sebi sought information, even though the reports were purportedly signed earlier.
Disclosure: This article has been written by Podishetti Akash, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Podishetti Akash and her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.
