Congress, TMC demand Madhabi Puri Buch's resignation after Hindenburg report

Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) launched a scathing attack on SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch over Hindenburg allegations.

Attacking the SEBI chief, TMC Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra questioned her ties with Adani Group and demanded her immediate resignation.

Moitra alleged that this is both a "conflict and capture of SEBI".

In a post on X, Moitra alleged, "Chairperson of SEBI is an opaque investor in Adani Group. Samdhi Cyril Shroff is on Corporate Governance Committee. No wonder all complaints to SEBI fall on deaf ears."

Over a video message, Moitra pointed out a few interesting facts over the recent Hindenburg expose into Madhabi Puri Buch's role in SEBI.

1. In 2015, Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch jointly invested into a fund which was used by Vinod Adani, the older brother of Gautam Adani, to round trip funds into India.

2. In February 2017, Madhabi Puri Buch transferred the fund from a joint account of her husband Dhaval Buch.

3. In March 2017, Madhabi Puri Buch became a full time member of SEBI.

4. In April 2019, India’s first ever Reit, Embassy, obtained Sebi approval and came with its IPO sponsored by Blackstone, just 3 months before Dhaval Buch reported joining Blackstone in July.

5. In July 2019, Dhaval Buch joined Blackstone as a senior advisor despite never having "worked for a fund, in real estate or at a capital markets firm".

6. In March 2022, Madhabi Puri Buch was appointed as chairperson of SEBI apparently, according to market rumours, Dhaval Buch's first cousin Sudhir Mankaru who had served as chief secretary of Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister played a pivotal role in the appointment.

7. On 24 January 2023, Hindenburg Research published a report accusing Adani group companies of stock manipulation and accounting fraud, ahead of a proposed Rs 20,000 crore share sale by Adani Enterprises.

Meanwhile, the Congress has demanded that the government "act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the SEBI investigation of Adani."

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh, on Saturday, took to X to post "Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes" in the party's statement "on the latest Hindenburg revelations.

Ramesh demanded the resignation of the chief of the stock market regulator to restore its integrity.

He reiterated the demand for a probe into Hindenburg Research allegations that Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband had a stake in obscure offshore entities used in “the Adani money siphoning scandal”.

On 10 August, the US-based firm alleged that the SEBI chief had a stake in "both the obscure and offshore entities used in the Adani money siphoning scandal".

With agency inputs