Parliament watchdog summons SEBI chief Madhabi Buch, officials on October 24

Members of the committee, sources said, will ask questions on the “impartial functioning of the SEBI in investigating the allegations against the Adani Group of Companies”.

There has been an Opposition chorus for a parliamentary probe into Hindenburg Research’s allegation that Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, had “stake in obscure offshore entities used in Adani money siphoning scandal”.

In response to the allegations made by Hindenburg, Buch and her husband, in a joint statement, had said “the investment in the fund referred to in the Hindenburg report was made in 2015 when they were both private citizens living in Singapore and almost 2 years before Madhabi joined SEBI, even as a Whole Time Member”.

She became a Whole Time Member in SEBI in 2017 and its Chairperson in March 2022.

“SEBI has strong institutional mechanisms of disclosure and recusal norms as per the code of conduct applicable to its officers. Accordingly, all disclosures and recusals have been diligently followed, including disclosures of all securities held or subsequently transferred,” the joint statement stated.

The Adani Group denied the allegations made by Hindenburg and called them “malicious, mischievous and manipulative”.

The PAC, headed by senior Congress leader K C Venugopal, has already put out the agenda for the first half of its October 24 meeting: “Briefing by Audit followed by Oral evidence of the representatives of Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the subject, ‘Performance Review of Regulatory Bodies established by Act of Parliament’. Oral evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Communications, Department of Telecommunications and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the subject, ‘Performance Review of Regulatory Bodies established by Act of Parliament’.”

While the Opposition members of the PAC had sought summoning of Buch, its BJP members had raised objections, saying the PAC can review the performance of SEBI or any other regulatory body only if finances granted by Parliament had been misused. BJP sources also maintained that the allegations levelled were against an individual, not the SEBI.