NEW DELHI: An Indian financial market regulator said it had barred the country’s biggest real-estate company DLF from the securities market for three years for allegedly defrauding investors.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which has been seeking to improve sometimes murky investment standards, accused the company of “active and deliberate” suppression of important information at the time of a 2007 initial public offering (IPO). The order was one of the toughest ever handed down by regulatory authorities, and would block debt-laden DLF from raising money through the sale of stocks or bonds. It has been hoping to raise funds to pay down some of the debt.