Mumbai: Congress protests, seeks JPC to probe Hindenburg allegations against SEBI chief, Adani group

Congress on Thursday protested in south Mumbai. Pic/Atul Kamble

Mumbai Congress leaders and party workers on Thursday protested in the city and demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) must probe the allegations against the SEBI chief and Adani group, reported the PTI.

Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad on Thursday said that a JPC must probe the allegations in the Hindenburg report against Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Buch and the Adani group, as per the PTI.

IN PHOTOS: Congress leaders, party workers protest in Mumbai, demand JPC probe into Adani issue

4 months agoPHOTO GALLERY

Leading a protest of her party outside the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in south Mumbai, Lok Sabha MP Gaikwad said the central probe agency raids opposition leaders but is turning a blind eye in the SEBI-Adani case.

"Our demand is that JPC must be formed to probe the Hindenburg allegations," Gaikwad said and questioned why Buch had not yet resigned as SEBI chief.

Madhabi Buch and her husband have denied the allegations levelled against them as baseless and asserted that their finances are an open book, while the Adani Group has termed Hindenburg Research's latest allegations as malicious, the news agency reported.

The group has claimed it has no commercial relationship with the SEBI chairperson or her husband.

Gujarat Congress demands JPC probe into Hindenburg allegations, says SEBI chief must go

Meanwhile, the Congress on Thursday stepped up its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the latest allegations made by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson and the Adani Group, reported the PTI.

Addressing a press conference, All India Mahila Congress president and party spokesperson Alka Lamba sought to know why SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch has not resigned after a Hindenburg report released nearly two weeks ago levelled allegations of a conflict of interest against her.

The latest Hindenburg report has claimed the SEBI chief and her husband Dhaval Buch had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal, inviting a strong rebuttal from them and the prominent business conglomerate.

"Our demand is that a JPC be formed to investigate the allegations. Such a committee should have members from all parties," Lamba said.
"The demand for a JPC investigation made by the Indian National Congress into the scam goes far beyond revelations made by Hindenburg Research's reports (first of which was released in early 2023)," she said, according to the PTI.

"The Hindenburg allegations are limited to those that deal with capital markets - stock manipulation, accounting fraud, and a conflict of interest in regulatory agencies like the SEBI. Hindenburg allegations are only the tip of the iceberg. Only a JPC can investigate and unravel the true and full extent of the scam," the Congress spokesperson insisted.

Quoting from the report, Lamba attacked the SEBI chief and alleged impropriety on her part.

"It turns out the SEBI chairperson was invested in funds that are part of the same family of 360 ONE funds that Vinod Adani (brother of billionaire Gautam Adani) used to launder the proceeds of over invoiced power equipment to violate the very rules on ownership that the market regulator was supposedly investigating," she contended.

"A 2008 SEBI policy prohibits its officials from holding an office of profit, and/or receiving salary or professional fees from other professional activities. The current SEBI chairperson joined the regulator in 2017 and was appointed to the top position in March 2022," Lamba stated.

The Congress spokesperson alleged Puri Buch has violated the SEBI policy.

"During those years (2017-22), her consulting firm Agora Advisory Pvt Ltd, in which (Dhaval) Buch (her husband) has a 99 per cent shareholding, earned a revenue of Rs 3.71 crore ($4,42,025), according to public documents," she said, as per the PTI

(with PTI inputs)