Congress' fresh allegations: 'SEBI chief traded in listed securities while working at regulator'

The Congress party on Saturday accused SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch of being engaged in in trading of listed securities, which was worth Rs 36.9 crore in the 2017-2023 period. The main Opposition party said that Buch at that time was a whole-time member in Sebi and later chosen as the SEBI chairperson.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Congress spokesperson Pawan Kera said Buch’s move to trade in listed securities during her SEBI membership is a violation of section 6 of SEBI Code on Conflict of Interest for Members of Board (2008).

On Friday, Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch issued a joint statement on their stand on the charges levelled by the Congress party and others. 

In the statement, Madhabi Buch said that all allegations against her were completely false, malicious, and derogatory after facing tough criticism from Hindenburg Research and Congresss for alleged conflicts of interest in investigations related to the Adani Group and other corporate entities.

She noted: "Our income tax returns clearly have been obtained by adopting fraudulent means and illegally. This is a clear breach of not only our right to privacy (which is a fundamental right) but also a violation of the Income Tax Act." 

About the allegations around consultancy firm Agora, Puri asserted that she never dealt with files involving Agora, Mahindra Group, Sembcorp, Dr.  Reddy's, or ICICI Group.

"Despite the transparency and professional clarity given by these organizations, it is unfortunate that the need to justify decisions taken by such respected companies, based purely on Dhaval’s expertise, has to be undertaken by them and by us. The strength of his qualifications and long years of experience should be sufficient, and questions about the motivations behind the decisions taken by these companies are unfortunate and defamatory not just for Dhaval, but for these respected companies as well", she said.

To this, Congress leader Khera said: “We are questioning why you were lying when you said Agora was a dormant company when it wasn't. It was getting consultancy…The other lie was Madhabi Buch saying that she didn't know that she was renting her property to someone related to Wockhardt."