The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced its verdict - after two long years. Ketan Parekh, known for his 'KP stocks', his brother Kartik Parekh and associate firms have been barred from accessing the capital market for 14 years. Parekh is charged with manipulative trading and artificial price rigging that led to the arrest of the then Bombay Stock Exchange president, Anand Rathi. It was the biggest scam to rock the markets since the Harshad Mehta scam.

Here's a sample of what the Sebi order says: "The price rise in the scrip of Lupin was neither in consonance with the movement of market indices such as the BSE Sensex and NSE-Nifty nor was it in tandem with the price movements of other scrips in the pharmaceutical industry like Ranbaxy, Glaxo, Novartis and Cipla. It was observed... that the price of the scrip of Lupin had moved from Rs 175 to Rs 609 during September-December 1999."

At this time, the ban appears to be symbolic. Sebi has to been seen as vigilant in this bull run. One only hopes another KP isn't waiting to happen.