Lokpal clean chit to Buch: Not even an iota of credible evidence exists

The Lokpal is headed by former Supreme Court Justice A M Khanwilkar.

The Lokpal inquiry was limited to allegations of reciprocative arrangements with four companies: Mahindra & Mahindra; Blackstone Inc; Wockhardt and ICICI Bank apart from the Adani Group.

Three complaints were filed against Buch, including one by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, alleging “quid pro quo arrangements which potentially threaten national interests”.

The three-year tenure of Buch, the first woman chief of the market regulator, ended on February 28 under a cloud following allegations of wrongdoing.

On the allegation that Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had invested substantial amounts in a fund linked to the Adani Group which was facing SEBI scrutiny, the Lokpal said the couple were only “passive investors” and in any case “earned annualised returns of approximately 3.9 per cent only on the amount invested in 2015, comparable to market benchmark Bond Index”.

The order stated that the complainants “are indirectly doubting the correctness of the findings recorded in the investigations by SEBI which had already been unreservedly upheld” by the Supreme Court.

The Lokpal was referring to the top court’s decision in January dismissing a plea that questioned the legitimacy of the SEBI probe into the Adani Group.

The second allegation against Buch was that Agora Advisory Private Limited, a consultancy firm in which she had 99% ownership between 2016 and 2024, received a consultancy fee from Mahindra & Mahindra and Blackstone Inc which had issues pending with SEBI during that time.

The Lokpal agreed with Buch’s submission that the case involving Mahindra & Mahindra was taken up a year before her husband took up the consultancy assignment and that the issue was dealt with by a “different whole time member”.

Buch was also accused of quid pro quo arrangement with Wockhardt Limited in the garb of rental income from Carol Info Services Private Limited, a linked company that was being investigated by SEBI for insider trading. The Lokpal said that the rental agreements were drawn four years before a settlement application was filed by Wockhardt in 2019.

“It is incredible to assume that the RPS (respondent public servant) had executed the rental agreement in anticipation of the settlement application of Wockhardt,” the order stated.

Buch was also accused of going “soft” on ICICI Bank since she was, during her tenure in SEBI, encashing ESOPS vested to her in 2013.

“We agree with the RPS that this allegation by the Complainants is an afterthought having realized that the other allegations would not stand the ground, being devoid of any merit. It is too much to assume that the stock options granted to an officer by the ICICI Bank up to 2011, can be used to allege quid pro quo attributable to him/her (RPS) years after superannuation in 2013 and connecting it to some remote settlement orders passed in 2019-2021,” the order stated.

The Lokpal order also criticised that income tax records of Buch were made public, “invading her privacy.” The order gave her the liberty to pursue legal remedies against this alleged privacy violation.