(Bloomberg) -- The head of India’s market regulator Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband on Friday termed recent allegations of impropriety against them as “false, malicious and motivated”, they said in a joint statement.
Madhabi Puri Buch had made all necessary disclosures and complied with recusal guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, where she is a member since 2017 and its head since 2022, the couple said in a statement issued in a private capacity. Puri Buch has never dealt with any file involving Agora Advisory, Agora Partners, the Mahindra Group, Pidilite Industries, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Alvarez and Marsal, Sembcorp or ICICI Bank Ltd at any stage after she joined SEBI.
The former investment banker has come under intense scrutiny after US-based Hindenburg Research alleged conflict of interest while supervising SEBI’s investigations into billionaire Gautam Adani’s group. This was followed by allegations from India’s main opposition party, the Congress Party, that the two firms — Agora Advisory and Agora Partners — linked to the couple, had provided consultancy services to listed companies supervised by the regulator.
Buch had earlier denied Hindeburg’s allegations.
“We are upright and honest professionals and have led our respective professional lives with transparency and dignity,” the couple said. Describing their work record as “unblemished”, they said they will demolish all “motivated allegations even in future”.
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India’s securities watchdog has faced questions over the delay in concluding the investigation into the Adani Group ordered by the South Asian nation’s top court last year. The regulator said that it has completed 23 out of the 24 separate probes it opened into the ports-to-power conglomerate. Earlier this month, the SEBI had to defend itself against allegations of its top leadership breeding an unprofessional work culture, which it called “misplaced”.
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