Govt must act to eliminate conflicts of interest in SEBI's Adani probe: Cong

In the wake of the US shortseller Hindenburg Researchs allegations against SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch the Congress on Sunday said the government must act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulators investigation of the Adani Group and reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the matterThe opposition party also said 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 the scamCongress president Mallikarjun Kharge said SEBI had previously cleared Adani a close associate of PM Modi before the Supreme Court following the January 2023 Hindenburg Report revelationsHowever new allegations have surfaced regarding a quidproquo involving the SEBI chief he saidThe small amp medium investors belonging to the Middle Class who invest their hardearned 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 saidUntil then concerns persist that PM Modi will continue to shield his ally compromising Indias Constitutional institutions painstakingly built over seven decades Kharge said in a post on XThe Hindenburg Research on 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 Adani money siphoning scandalIn a blog post Hindenburg said 18 months after its damning report on Adani SEBI has shown a surprising lack of interest in Adanis alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities SEBI Chairman Buch and her husband have denied the allegations levelled against them as baseless and asserted that their finances are an open bookAdani Group on Sunday termed Hindenburg Researchs latest allegations as malicious and manipulative of select public information saying it has no commercial relationship with the SEBI chairperson or her husbandThe Congress also raised questions over the SEBI account being locked in TwitterIn a post on X Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the SEBI account on Twitter is locked and therefore inaccessible to the general publicSome reports suggest it may have been locked for a while but this continued inaccessibility at a time when evidence of conflict of interest by its top leadership has come out is puzzling The Modani scandal has been brewing for many months now and the SEBIs inaction has been a recurring disappointment Ramesh saidHe said questions emerge such as why was the account lockedThis opacity leads to questions about whether the platform has been quietly deleting past advisoriespress releases which may be incriminating the organisationits leadership on the Modani scam Ramesh saidThe platform is national property and authorities should not be withholding public access he saidThis nonaccessibility to the public in the time of crisis is not a sign of a mature professional independent market regulator the Congress leader saidIn a statement issued late Saturday night and reposted on Sunday Ramesh said the SEBIs strange reluctance to investigate the Adani mega scam has been long noted not least by the Supreme Courts Expert CommitteeThe Committee he said had noted that SEBI in 2018 diluted and in 2019 entirely deleted the reporting requirements relating to the ultimate beneficial ie actual ownership of foreign fundsThis 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 CommitteeUnder public pressure after the Adani horse had bolted SEBIs board reintroduced stricter reporting rules on 28 June 2023 It told the Expert Committee on 25 August 2023 that it was investigating 13 suspicious transactions Yet the investigations never bore fruit the Congress leader addedHe said the Hindenburg Researchs Saturday revelations show that Buch and her husband invested in the same Bermuda and Mauritiusbased offshore funds in which Vinod Adani and his close associates Chang ChungLing and Nasser Ali Shahban Ahli invested funds earned from the overinvoicing of power equipmentThese 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 saidThe Congress leader said the revelation raise fresh questions about Gautam Adanis two 2022 meetings in quick succession with Buch shortly after she became the stock market regulators chairpersonThe 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 statementCongress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said on Sunday that the shocking revelations do not just expose the cozy relationship between the SEBI chief and the Adani group they show how appointments to watchdog institutions are made in this governmentA simple due diligence done by the government before appointing Ms Madhabi Puri Buch as SEBI Chairperson would have brought these damning details out he said in a post on XIt would be naive to believe that those in the government were not aware of these offshore investments of Madhabi Buch and Dhaval Buch Khera saidThe buck stops at the doorstep of the Prime Minister of India Only a JPC can get all the answers he assertedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday 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