Manish criticises SEBI's 'lackadaisical attitude' in Adani-Hindenburg probe

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Manish Tewari criticised the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday for its sluggish approach in investigating the allegations made in the Hindenburg report against Adani Group. Raising concerns on the delay, Tewari pointed out that the Hindenburg report came out a year ago and alleged that SEBI has been delaying it since then.

"The fundamental fact remains that the Hindenburg report came into the public domain exactly one year ago and since one year, SEBI has been dragging its feet on the allegations made in the Hindenburg report," the Congress MP said while speaking to ANI. He emphasized the sensitive nature of the matter and expressed dissatisfaction with SEBI's attitude. "If on a matter as sensitive as this, it takes one year to even complete an investigation, it just goes to show how lackadaisical the attitude of SEBI is," Tewari said.

"If SEBI wanted, it could have completed the investigation a long time back and we repeatedly raised this matter even in the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court declined to transfer the probe from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or CBI into the Adani-Hindenburg issue. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, PS Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the scope of power of the apex court to enter into the regulatory domain of SEBI is limited.

The bench said there has been no regulatory failure by SEBI and the market regulator cannot be expected to carry on its functions based on press reports though such reports can act as inputs for SEBI. The top court asked SEBI to complete within three months its probe into two cases pending out of 24 cases.

The case is related to the allegations (part of a report by short-seller Hindenberg Research) that Adani had inflated its share prices. After these allegations were published, it led to a sharp fall in the share value of various Adani companies, reportedly to the tune of USD 100 billion.

The Adani Group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.