Congress raised new allegations against SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch on Friday. The party alleged that Buch received rental income from a company linked to an entity under investigation by the market watchdog, including insider trading.
This coincides with the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) calling in various regulatory bodies, including Sebi, for performance review. However, PAC Chairman K.C. Venugopal said that the committee will decide whether to call SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch for questioning.
Jairam Ramesh who is Congress' General Secretary for Communications, stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be asked how much more evidence is needed to show that there is a decline in transparency and integrity within the capital markets regulator.
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"The question really has to be asked of the non-biological PM himself and nobody else. How much more evidence is needed to show the collapse of transparency and integrity, as far as the regulator of capital market is concerned?" Ramesh asked in a social media post.
The Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said that between 2018 and 2024, Buch -- as a whole-time member and later chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) -- had been receiving rental income amounting to Rs 2.16 crore from "Carol Info Services Limited", a company affiliated to Wockhardt Limited.
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Wockhardt Limited was being investigated by SEBI for various cases, including that of insider trading during 2023, he said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.
Khera said that this was an outright case of corruption that invoked conflict of interest, violating sections 4, 7 and 8 of SEBI's 2008 code on conflict of interests for members of its board.
"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.
(With inputs from PTI)
