The Congress on Sunday demanded that the Union government “act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] investigation of Adani”.
This came after the American short-seller Hindenburg Research claimed on Saturday that Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairperson Madhabi Buch and her husband owned stakes in offshore entities linked to the Adani Group.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also demanded a parliamentary investigation into the broader allegations of financial misconduct against the conglomerate, which has been accused of accounting fraught, money laundering and stock price manipulation by the short-seller.
Ramesh said the claims against Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, had brought to light “conflicts of interest” in SEBI’s investigation of the Adani Group’s use of offshore accounts.
“We suspect SEBI’s unwillingness to take meaningful action against suspect offshore shareholders in the Adani Group may stem from Chairperson Madhabi Buch’s complicity in using the exact same funds used by Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani,” Hindenburg Research said on Saturday.
“The seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land can only be resolved by setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the full scope of Adani MegaScam,” Ramesh said on X.
The former Union minister said that SEBI’s “strange reluctance to investigate the Adani MegaScam has been long noted”, including by a Supreme Court-appointed committee.
Ramesh said that Hindenburg Research’s latest findings were significant in light of industrialist Gautam Adani’s two meetings with Buch shortly after she was appointed SEBI chairperson in 2022.
“Recall that SEBI was supposedly investigating Adani transactions at the time,” Ramesh pointed out.
Madhabi and Dhaval Buch have denied the allegations and said they would issue a detailed response to Hindenburg Research’s report.
In July, Hindenburg Research said it had received a show-cause notice from the Securities and Exchange Board of India outlining alleged violations in its short-selling of Adani Group stocks.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra also commented on the matter, writing in a post on X: “Crony Capitalism at its finest”.
The MP from West Bengal asked the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate if they would file cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act in light of the allegations.
Moitra described the allegations against Buch as “both conflict and capture of SEBI”.
“Chairperson of SEBI is an opaque investor in Adani Group,” she wrote. “No wonder all complaints to SEBI fall on deaf ears.”
She added that SEBI could not be trusted under Buch’s leadership to conduct a fair investigation of corruption claims against the Adani Group.
“Supreme Court will have to revisit its decision post this information becoming public,” she said. The top court had in July dismissed a plea seeking a review of its January verdict, in which it refused to transfer the Adani Group case to a special investigation team or the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia, who was on Friday granted bail in two money laundering cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Delhi liquor policy, claimed that the central agencies would never investigate the allegations against Buch.
“If these revelations are true then it becomes easy to understand who the intended beneficiaries of ‘Vikasit Bharat’ [developed India] are,” Sisodia said on X. “But in an era of dictatorship, will these claims even be investigated to see if they are true? Will ED and CBI ever show the courage? Or are they only meant to trap and jail Opposition leaders and businessmen in false cases?”
Shiv Sena [UBT] leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the claims against Buch had made it clear why SEBI had not answered her requests for details about Adani Group companies, which she had submitted in April 2023.
Also read: SEBI knew about allegations against Adani Group since 2014, letter shows
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