The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is set to examine the allegations against SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch, according to a report.
Last month, activist short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Buch, the Chairperson of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), of not taking any action regarding the previous allegations against the Adani Group because of her conflict of interest in the case. It alleged that Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had stakes in the offshore funds that the Adani Group allegedly used to siphon off money.
Now, The Economic Times has reported that the PAC is set to look into the allegations against Buch and may summon her for a hearing.
The exact the matter may be taken up was not mentioned in the report.
The ET reported that the PAC, which is headed by Congress MP KC Venugopal, decided to list the matter in its agenda in a meeting on August 29 after several members raised the issue.
The newspaper reported that the PAC’s formal agenda, however, did not directly refer to Buch, SEBI, or the Hindenburg’s allegations and simply stated: ‘Performance review of regulatory bodies established by act of parliament.’
Officials, however, told the paper that the matter is indeed related to Hindenburg’s allegations against Buch.
“The matter was added on suo moto basis in the August 29 meeting as many members were concerned about the serious allegations against the capital market regulator and the SEBI chief. The concerned ministry officials may be summoned this month,” said a person aware of the matter to the paper.
Pile of allegations against Madhabi Puri Buch
In addition to Hindenburg’s allegations, Buch is also facing other corruption allegations. Earlier this week, the Congress party alleged that even after she took over as the SEBI Chairperson and started drawing salary from SEBI, Buch continued to hold an office of profit at the ICICI Bank and has continued to draw income from the bank to the day.
The same day, Zee Group patriarch Subhash Chandra accused Buch of being corrupt.
Chandra said Buch was “biased” against him and announced the decision “not to cooperate with SEBI any further”, according to PTI.
Chandra also accused Buch of taking “illegal” money from the ICICI Bank and linked her to Chanda Kochhar, the tainted former ICICI boss implicated in the Rs 1,875-crore loan fraud case involving the bank and the Videocon.
“ICICI Bank and my investigation tells me that Madhabi Puri Buch and Chanda Kochhar at that time were constantly on phone calls. She was the very close person and Chanda Kochhar was the one who was giving the money to her, which has been revealed today this morning, for crores of rupees, she was taking illegally from ICICI,” said Chandra, as per the news agency.
Chandra further accused Buch of being the reason for the failure of the Zee-Sony merger.
“Yes, this was the main reason for the merger to set apart, and that is why I am questioning today that SEBI is supposed to protect the interest of minority shareholders, and she succeeded in pushing away Sony from getting merged with Zee,” said Chandra.
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Charges against Sebi chief to be examined by parliamentary panel: Report
