New Delhi: A day after the US short-seller Hindenburg accused SEBI chief of having links to a Mauritius-based fund associated with the Adani Group, the Congress demanded that a Joint Parliamentary Panel should probe the allegations. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said that the integrity of the market regulator has been “gravely compromised”.
In a video message that he posted on his social media platforms, Gandhi asked why has SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch not resigned yet. “If investors lose their hard-earned money, who will be held accountable—PM Modi, the SEBI chairperson, or Gautam Adani? In light of the new and very serious allegations that have surfaced, will the Supreme Court look into this matter suo moto once again,” he further asked.
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.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 11, 2024
Honest investors across the country have pressing questions for the government:
- Why… pic.twitter.com/vZlEl8Qb4b
Gandhi also said that it is now “abundantly clear” why Prime Minister Modi is “so afraid” of a JPC probe and what "it might reveal".
In the video, Gandhi said that this is akin to a scenario of a cricket match between Australia and India "where every player knows that the umpire is compromised". “What happens to the fairness of the match,” he asked.
He said that many people have invested their hard-earned money in the stock market and it is his duty as LoP to bring to notice the "underlying risks" in light of the Hindenburg "expose".
"There are allegations of illegal share ownership and price manipulation using offshore funds against the Adani group. That SEBI chairperson Madhavi Buch and her husband had an interest in these funds is an explosive allegation."
Also, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, said that SEBI had previously given clean chit to Adani before the Supreme Court following the January 2023 Hindenburg report against the Adani group. To protect investors, he said, a JPC is needed.
“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,” his post read.
“Until then, concerns persist that PM Modi will continue to shield his ally, compromising India's Constitutional institutions, painstakingly built over seven decades,” he added.
Meanwhile, the party’s general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh, in a statement, said that SEBI's “strange reluctance to investigate the Adani mega scam has been long noted, including by the Supreme Court’s Expert Committee".
“That Committee had pointed out in its report that SEBI had in 2018 diluted and in 2019, entirely deleted the reporting requirements relating to the ultimate beneficial (actual) ownership of foreign funds,” he said. This, he added while quoting the Expert Committee, had tied the hand of the regulator to the extent that while it suspects wrongdoing, it also finds compliance with various stipulations in attendant regulations. “It is this dichotomy that has led to SEBI drawing a blank worldwide,” he said, quoting the Expert Committee.
These findings, Ramesh said, raises questions about Gautam Adani’s two 2022 meetings in quick succession with Buch shortly after she became SEBI chairperson.
"There needs to be a greater threshold for technocrats and lateral entrants in responsible positions in public life," All India Professionals' Congress chairperson Praveen Chakravarty said in a statement on the Hindenburg allegation about SEBI Chairperson.