“Abhay Bhutada has decided to step down as the Managing Director of the Company in the broader interest of the company and its stakeholders,” the company stated.

Adar Poonawalla led Rising Sun Holdings’ holds majority stake in Poonawalla Fincorp, formerly called Magma Fincorp. At the time Bhutada was the chief executive officer of Poonawalla Finance, a private subsidiary of Rising Sun Holdings.

Shares of Poonawalla Fincorp fell 5% on Thursday after market regulator SEBI banned the MD and seven others from the securities market for insider trading.

Bhutada was found guilty of sharing information about Adar Poonawalla-owned Rising Sun Holdings’ proposed stake buy in the company before it was public knowledge, SEBI said in an interim order on Wednesday.

Based on call records, financial dealing and bank statements, SEBI discovered that several entities related to Bhutada traded in Magma stock before details of Rising Sun’s acquisition were disclosed to the stock exchanges.

Bhutada and seven other people are restrained from buying, selling or dealing in securities until further orders, SEBI said its order.

Poonawalla Fincorp and Abhay Bhutada did not immediately respond to Reuters request for a comment.

The Gujarat BJP has called for a legislative party meeting as the party headquarters at 3 pm. The new chief minister is likely to be announced after the meeting. In case the new chief minister is announced on Sunday, swearing-in ceremony could take place on Monday, sources told India today.

After reaching Ahmedabad, Narendra Singh Tomar told ANI, “We have come here to hold further discussions. We will hold discussions with the state president and other leaders.

On Saturday, Vijay Rupani tendered his resignation as the chief minister to Governor Acharya Devrat, Rupani’s resignation comes 15 months before Gujarat goes to assembly polls in December 2022.

According to the sources, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, former Gujarat Minister Gordhan Zadafia, and Praful K Patel, Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Lakshadweep, are the frontrunners to succeed Vijay Rupani as the chief minister of Gujarat.

Besides them, the names of Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya were also doing rounds to succeed Vijay Rupani. However, CR Patil cleared on Saturday that he was not in the race to become the next chief minister of Gujarat.