Axis Asset Management Company, which is the seventh largest fund house in the country with assets under management of over 2.6 lakh crore, has been sacked by chief trader Viresh Joshi, who was suspended earlier in the day after the fund house was probing alleged wrongdoings by the fund manager.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the mutual fund entity said Joshi, who has been with the fund house since 2009, has been terminated with immediate effect.
His conduct and subsequent decision to suspend him have resulted in his resignation from May 18, 2022, and he will no longer have any association with Axis AMC and Axis Mutual Fund. According to the statement, Mr Viresh Joshi ceases to be a Key Person of Axis AMC.
This assumes significance as earlier in the day Joshi and assistant fund manager Deepak Agrawal, who joined Axis AMC in 2015 as equity research analyst, were suspended because the fund house said it had initiated a suo moto investigation in February.
Joshi was the fund manager of five schemes, including Axis Arbitrage Fund, Axis Banking ETF, Axis Consumption ETF, Axis Nifty ETF and Axis Technology ETF. Agarwal managed Axis Consumption ETF, Axis Quant Fund and Axis Value Fund, as per data available with Value Research, a mutual fund tracking firm.
The funds have been allocated to other fund managers, including Jinesh Gopani, Head Equity and Ashish Naik, Fund Manager Equity.
While the statement stated that the fund house has a zero tolerance policy towards non-compliance, it did not elaborate on the wrongdoings or violations that led to the sacking of its chief trader.
Since the issue came out in public, various allegations have been made in the market, including front-running and kickbacks against its chief trader.