Adani-Hindenburg row: SEBI denies probing Adani since 2016

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 15

Denying the allegation that it has been investigating the Adani Group since 2016, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Monday reiterated its request to the Supreme Court for grant of six additional months to complete the probe into allegations of stock price manipulation as the transactions in question were “highly complex”.

“The allegation that SEBI has been investigating Adani since 2016 is factually baseless,” SEBI said in a fresh affidavit filed in the top court.

“In respect of the investigation relating to 12 transactions referred to in the Hindenburg Report, prima facie it is noted that these transactions are highly complex and have many sub-transactions across numerous jurisdictions and a rigorous investigation of these would require collation of data from various sources,” SEBI said.

“Thereafter, analysis would have to be conducted on the documents received before conclusive findings can be arrived at,” it said.

“The application for extension of time filed by SEBI is meant to ensure carriage of justice keeping in mind the interest of investors and the securities market since any incorrect or premature conclusion of the case arrived at without full facts material on record would not serve the ends of justice and hence would be legally untenable,” it said. A three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud on Monday deferred the hearing on SEBI’s plea for additional six months to complete the probe as it could not take up the matter for paucity of time. The court’s computer-generated date showed July 10 as the next date of hearing.

SEBI said it has already approached 11 overseas regulators under the multilateral memorandum of understanding with the International Organisation of Securities Commissions with respect to its investigation into minimum public shareholding norms. Noting that there needed to be some “alacrity”, the Supreme Court had on Friday told SEBI that it could grant three additional months, and not six months, to SEBI to probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani Group.

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#gautam adani #Hindenburg Report #supreme court