The Supreme Court has been apprised that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had concealed facts about the Adani group, along with changing the law to benefit the them in the Hindenburg Research report case on the Adani group of companies.
A fresh petition has been filed by petitioner Anamika Jaiswal with others, stating that the alert by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in early 2014 about over-invoicing and stock market manipulation by Adani amounting to siphoning of Rs 2,323 crore was ignored by the markets regulator.
The petition mentioned how it was shocking that SEBI has suppressed and concealed this important information from the Apex Court and never conducted any investigation based on the DRI alert.
It added that the Expert Committee which investigated the possible contravention of rules and regulations by the Adani group of companies started on October 23, 2020.
As per the Hindenburg report, the conglomerate had done fraud by inflating share prices. The report had led to a fall in the share value of various Adani companies, reportedly to the tune of 100 billion dollars.
The Supreme Court had formed a committee headed by retired apex court judge, Justice AM Sapre, to examine the controversy.
The Apex Court had also asked SEBI to independently investigate the matter and submit a report.
The expert committee had in its report in May found no prima facie lapse on part of the markets regulator in the matter.
The SEBI is yet to submit its report. Last month, the market regulator had sought a 15-day extension from the Supreme Court to furnish a status report on its probe into the matter.
The fresh affidavit filed by the petitioner has, however, alleged conflict of interest on SEBI’s part in examining the matter.
The affidavit highlighted that Cyril Shroff, the founder and managing partner of law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldass, is part of the SEBI’s Committee on Corporate Governance. At the same time, Shroff’s daughter is married to Gautam Adani’s son, the affidavit pointed out.
It was also claimed that the changes to the SEBI Act provided a ‘shield and an excuse’ for the Adani Group’s regulatory contraventions and market manipulations to remain undetected.
As per the affidavit, given the series of amendments to the LODR [Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements Regulations], 2015, it has become difficult to establish the contraventions.
It said the promoter group shareholding in all five Adani Group companies till March 2020 was between 74 and 75 percent, as per their own discloures. These companies would be in clear violation of Rule 19A of SCRR [Securities Contracts Regulation Rules], 1957 if the 13 suspected overseas entities were/are front companies for the Adani group promoters, it added.
The affidavit further pointed out that in 2014, the SEBI chief who allegedly ignored the DRI alerts was Upendra Sinha, who is now a director at New Delhi Television (NDTV), a news channel now owned by the Adani Group.
The petitioner, therefore, said that the regulator’s 24 probe reports against the group over the years be made public.