capital markets regulator sebi on monday dismissed insider trading charges against two persons who circulated alleged unpublished pricesensitive information about the financial results of itc through whatsapp messages the individuals are parthiv dalal and shruti vora the securities and exchange board of india sebi said in its order sebi last month had disposed of the adjudication proceedings against four individuals including vora in the case pertaining to alleged circulation of unpublished pricesensitive information upsi about the financial results of half a dozen companies including tcs and ultratech cement the orders came after the securities appellate tribunal sat had set aside sebis insider trading charges against certain individuals in the whatsapp leak case in march 2021 and the same was upheld by the supreme court on september 26 this year the case pertains to the circulation of upsi in various private whatsapp groups about certain companies ahead of their official result announcements to the stock exchanges it was alleged that dalal and vora communicated the upsi related to itc revenue profit after tax depreciations finance cost other income among others for the quarter ended september 2016 to other persons through whatsapp messages and violated the provisions of insider trading rules in its order passed on monday sebi has disposed of insider trading charges against the two individuals dismissing the charges against these two persons the regulator said the instant case is a replica of the case that was decided by sat in march 2021 and upheld by the supreme court its order passed on september 26 2022 with the only difference being that the circulation of whatsapp messages pertain to different scrips sat had noted the definitions of unpublished price sensitive information and insider information and had said that generally available information would not be a upsi it further said information can be branded as upsi only when the person getting the information had knowledge that it was upsi in 2017 some news reports referred to the circulation of upsi in various private whatsapp groups about certain companies ahead of their official result announcements against that backdrop sebi had initiated a preliminary examination in the matter during which search and seizure operations against 26 entities of a whatsapp group were conducted and about 190 devices and records among others were seized whatsapp chats extracted from the seized devices were examined and it was found that earnings data and other financial information of around 12 companies were leaked through the messages