NEW DELHI, Aug 11: In the wake of the Hindenburg Research’s allegations against SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch, the Congress on Sunday asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the “entire scam” and investigate it under its aegis and suggested the Centre that it must act immediately to eliminate conflicts of interest in the regulator’s investigation of the Adani Group and reiterated the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the entire matter.
It also asserted that in the wake of such “serious allegations”, Buch cannot remain in her position at all.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) previously cleared Adani before the Supreme Court following the January 2023 Hindenburg Report revelations.
However, new allegations have surfaced regarding a “quid-pro-quo” involving the SEBI chief, he said. “The small & medium investors belonging to the Middle Class who invest their hard-earned money in the stock market need to be protected, as they believe in the SEBI. A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) inquiry is imperative to investigate this massive scandal,” he said.
“Until then, concerns persist that PM Modi will continue to shield his ally, compromising India’s Constitutional institutions, painstakingly built over seven decades,” Kharge said in a post on X.
US short-seller Hindenburg Research Saturday launched a broadside against market regulator SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch, alleging she and her husband had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal.
SEBI Chairman Buch and her husband have denied the allegations as baseless and asserted their finances are an open book.
The Adani Group termed the latest allegations malicious and based on manipulation of select public information. The company said it has no commercial relationship with SEBI chairperson or her husband.
On the other hand, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the integrity of SEBI has been “gravely compromised” by the allegations against its chairperson and asked whether the Supreme Court would look into this matter suo motu once again.
In a post on X, Gandhi said, “The integrity of SEBI, the securities regulator entrusted with safeguarding the wealth of small retail investors, has been gravely compromised by the allegations against its Chairperson. Honest investors across the country have pressing questions for the government: Why hasn’t SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch resigned yet? If investors lose their hard-earned money, who will be held accountable — ?PM Modi, the SEBI Chairperson, or Gautam Adani?”
“It is now abundantly clear why Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is so afraid of a JPC probe and what it might reveal,” he said.
In light of the new and “very serious” allegations that have surfaced, will the Supreme Court look into this matter suo motu once again, Gandhi asked.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued late Saturday night and reposted on X on Sunday, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the SEBI’s “strange reluctance to investigate the Adani mega scam” has been long noted, not least by the SC’s Expert Committee.
The Committee, he said, had noted that SEBI in 2018 diluted and in 2019, entirely deleted the reporting requirements relating to the ultimate beneficial (i.e. actual) ownership of foreign funds.
“This had tied its hands to the extent that ‘the securities market regulator suspects wrongdoing, but also finds compliance with various stipulations in attendant regulations… It is this dichotomy that has led to SEBI drawing a blank worldwide’,” Ramesh said quoting the Expert Committee.
He said the Hindenburg Research’s Saturday revelations show that Buch and her husband invested in the same Bermuda and Mauritius-based offshore funds in which “Vinod Adani and his close associates Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shahban Ahli invested funds earned from the over-invoicing of power equipment”.
“These funds are believed also to have been used to amass large stakes in Adani Group companies in violation of SEBI regulations. It is shocking that Buch would have a financial stake in these same funds,” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader said the revelation raise fresh questions about Gautam Adani’s two 2022 meetings in quick succession with Buch, shortly after she became the stock market regulator’s chairperson.
“The government must act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the SEBI investigation of Adani. The fact is that the seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land can only be resolved by setting up a JPC to investigate the full scope of the Adani mega scam,” the former Union minister said in his statement.
He said the SEBI account on Twitter is “locked” at a time when “evidence of conflict of interest by its top leadership” has come out. “This opacity leads to questions about whether the platform has been quietly deleting past advisories/press releases which may be incriminating the organisation/its leadership on the Modani scam,” Ramesh said. (PTI)
