The Congress on Friday came up with a fresh set of revelations, accusing SEBI Chairperson Madhabi P Buch of receiving rental income of ₹2.16 crore from an entity affiliated with a company that the market regulator was investigating for various cases including that of insider trading from 2023.
At a press conference, Pawan Khera, Chairman, Media and Publicity (Communication Department), AICC, told reporters, “This is an outright case of corruption that invokes conflict of interest violating Section 4, 7 and 8 of SEBI’s 2008 Code on Conflict of Interests for Members of Board.”
Between 2018-2024, Buch as a whole time member and later as the Chairperson of SEBI received rental income amounting to ₹2.16 crore from ‘Carol Info ServicesLtd ‘, a company affiliated to WockhardtLtd, which is under the market regulator’s scanner, he said.
She took over as the whole time director of SEBI from 2017 for a tenure of three years and on March 2,2022 she was elevated to become its Chairperson.
As per the data shared by the AICC, for the first year of 2018-19, the rental income stood at ₹7 lakh, it went up to ₹ 36.75 lakh in 2019-2020, ₹39.75 lakh in 2020-21, ₹42.60 lakh in 2021-22, ₹44.40 lakh in 2022-23 and ₹46.05 lakh in 2023-24.
During this time, four settlement orders were issued by the SEBI with respect to Wockhardt Ltd. The first one was issued on March 2, 2023, the second one on May 22, 2023, the third on June 19, 2023 and the last on July 31, 2023, said the Congress to establish the charge of the quid pro quo against Buch.
The SEBI chairperson was appointed on March 2, 2022, by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which the Prime Minister heads. “Was her appointment cleared on the condition that she could maintain her previous financial relationships, provided she acted in line with the wishes of the Prime Minister and his close associates?” the Congress leader asked.
The Congress said that previous SEBI chairpersons have gone to great lengths to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, both in their roles at the market regulator and in their previous positions.
“For instance, M. Damodaran sold his 50 SBI shares when he took over UTI in 2001 and C B Bhave recused himself from all matters involving the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), where he was formerly chairman. In contrast, Buch merely transferred her investments to her spouse, which raises concerns about credibility,” Khera stated.
“Why was there no effort to verify whether Buch would follow these established standards? Or was this lack of scrutiny part of a mutually beneficial arrangement?” he asked.
Independent probe
The Friday’s onslaught came a day after Congress sought independent probe into series of allegations against Buch which the lead Opposition party has been raking up since August 10 when Hindenburg Research, an American short seller, came out with a report, alleging that “SEBI’s unwillingness to take meaningful action against suspect shareholders in the Adani Group stemmed from Buch’s complicity in using the exact same funds used by Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani.”
Chairman of Professionals’ Congress and Data Analytics Praveen Chakravarty alleged that during her tenure at ICICI Bank, Buch was also employed at Greater Pacific Capital, a private equity fund where NSA Ajit Doval’s son Shaurya Doval is a member of the leadership team.
He justified the demand for an independent inquiry in national interest given that, as he said, domestic and foreign investors were concerned, leading to doubts about the integrity of Indian stock markets.
Prior to that, the Congress had also released figures to insist Buch’s pension benefits were double than her salary she drew at her previous assignment at the ICICI bank and questioned why there was a break of one year just before she joined SEBI.
However, ICICI Bank has refuted the allegations.