Lucknow Press
Hindenburg Research Report: Political fervor has started increasing over the recent report of Hindenburg Research. Opposition parties have started cornering the central government over this. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has now cornered the government over this. He said that the Adani mega scam can be solved only by forming a JPC for a comprehensive investigation.
Jairam Ramesh said that SEBI’s surprising reluctance to investigate the Adani mega scam has been in the public eye for a long time. The Supreme Court’s Expert Committee had taken special cognizance of this. The committee had pointed out in its report that SEBI had weakened the reporting requirements related to the ultimate beneficial (ie actual ownership) of foreign funds in 2018 and removed it completely in 2019.
According to the committee, this has tied the hands of the securities market regulator to such an extent that “it suspects wrongdoings, but it also sees compliance with various conditions in the relevant regulations… This is the contradiction due to which SEBI has not reached any conclusion in this matter.
He further said that, under public pressure, after the Adani case had already caused significant damage, the SEBI 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 investigation never yielded any results. Yesterday’s revelations by Hindenburg Research showed that SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband had invested in the same Bermuda and Mauritius-based offshore funds in which Vinod Adani and his close associates Chang Chung-ling and Nasser Ali Shahban Ahli invested the money earned from over-invoicing of power equipment.
Jairam Ramesh also said that these funds are also believed to have been used to acquire large stakes in Adani Group companies in violation of SEBI rules. It is extremely shocking that Buch had a financial stake in these funds. This raises new questions about Gautam Adani’s two consecutive meetings with Madhabi Puri Buch in 2022, soon after she became SEBI chairperson.
Remember that at that time SEBI was allegedly investigating Adani’s transactions. The government should take immediate action to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the SEBI investigation of Adani. The fact is that the alleged collusion of the highest officials of the country can be resolved only by forming a JPC to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the Adani mega scam.
