Centre should not ignore Hindenburg revelations on SEBI chief: body
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New Delhi: Following the latest shocking revelation by Hindenburg Research, linking the Adani group with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the People’s Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPSPS) questioned the Modi government’s lack of concern about the report, The Wire reported.
On Friday, the policy consultations body PCPSPS said that it feels that the government cannot afford to adopt such a hands-off, indifferent approach to the Hindenburg report. The government must clear doubts by ordering a quick, independent investigation to ascertain the factual correctness of the accusations, PCPSPS said.
Last week, Hinden burg Research accused SEBI chief Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch of having stakes in offshore funds in the Adani money siphoning scandal.
The PCPSPS continued that the SEBI chairman may say that she has disclosed the details of her investments to SEBI since she had been a full-time member of SEBI from April 2017 to March 2022, and the chairman thereafter, it is the government that would have appointed her to those senior positions. If any disclosure were to be made by her, she ought to have made such a disclosure not only to SEBI but also to the Ministry of Finance. One is not sure whether the Ministry of Finance had been informed of it by her and if the Union Cabinet had also been kept informed. In principle, since Hindenburg had made accusations against her as an individual, she cannot give a clean chit to herself, the policy consultation body said.
When the Buchs denied allegations by Hindenburg, it strengthened its allegations, invoking additional facts revealed through other investigative reports. Also, the SEBI chief’s consulting firms named in the Hindenburg report did not go dormant as she claimed earlier.
PCPSPS questioned the emergence of a “shadowy economy” that has been allowed to “flourish overseas for unethical private corporate entities to set up dubious shell companies to stash their illicit wealth and round-trip its funds at their will, not only for evading taxes but also for manipulating the domestic stock market to profiteer at the cost of millions of small investors in India,” The Wire quoted the commission’ statement.
“One should not be surprised how such dubious shell companies have also been used to fund the political party in power through several illegal instruments, including the infamous Electoral Bonds scheme,” the Commission said.
