People will understand 'Chowkidar chor hai' if Modi doesn't allow JPC probe in Sebi-Hindenburg row: AAP

AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Sebi-Hindenburg row and said that unless the PM allows a joint parliamentary committee to probe the issue, the people of the country will realise 'chowkidar chor hai' (the watchman is the thief).

This is a reference to the BJP's "main bhi chowkidar" slogan during the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"Look at the honesty of Modiji, he made Madhavi Buch the SEBI chief who invests in benami funds of Bermuda and Mauritius. Benami means such companies whose employees are neither known nor their source of income, but those companies invest thousands of crores in Adani's company in India and increase the share price in a fraudulent manner," Singh further alleged in his post.

The Opposition on Monday had stepped up its attack on the government over Hindenburg's allegations against SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch with the Congress warning of a nationwide stir if a JPC probe is not initiated, even as the BJP dismissed the demand as a "sham" aimed at undermining the Indian economy.

The Indian stock market held up despite Rahul Gandhi lending his voice to the "trash" Hindenburg report, the ruling party said and alleged billionaire investor George Soros was behind the moves to destabilise the economy and the Modi government.

After launching a broadside against the chief of market regulator SEBI, alleging that she and her husband had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the "Adani money siphoning scandal", US short-seller Hindenburg Research said Buch has now publicly confirmed her investment in an obscure Bermuda/Mauritius fund structure.

With PTI inputs