Adani-Hindenburg row: SEBI's inability to reach final conclusion 'deeply worrying', says Congress

The Congress on Saturday said stock market regulator SEBIs inability to reach a conclusive finding on the allegations of roundtripping and money laundering by the Adani Group was deeply worryingCongress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has admitted this in its status report to the Supreme Court and added only a Joint Parliamentary Committee JPC can examine how the government flouted norms and procedures to help Prime Minister Narendra Modis favourite business groupThe inability of the Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI to reach a conclusive finding on allegations of roundtripping and money laundering by the Adani Group as it has admitted in its 25th August 2023 status report to the Supreme Court is deeply troubling Ramesh said in a statementSharing the statement on X he posted SEBIs inability to reach a final conclusion in the matter of roundtripping and moneylaundering allegations against the Adani Group is deeply worryingThe Congress leader said that of the 24 matters SEBI investigated relating to the matter two still have interim statusRamesh said one of the interim reports relates to the important question of whether Adani violated the Minimum Public Shareholding requirement under Rule 19A of the Securities Contracts Regulation RulesIn simple terms did Adani use opaque entities based in overseas tax havens to engage in the kind of roundtripping and money laundering that the PM has always claimed to oppose SEBI has stated that the reason for delay is that information from external agencies and entities is still awaited he addedThe country Ramesh said is clearly paying a heavy price for the SEBIs decision in 2018 to dilute and in 2019 to delete the reporting requirements relating to the ultimate beneficial ownership of foreign fundsThe Congress leader noted no less than the Supreme Courts Expert Committee pointed out that the reason the SEBI has failed to identify beneficial ownership of overseas investors in Adani companies was that the securities market regulator suspects wrongdoing but is drawing a blank worldwide due to its piquant decision to remove these stipulationsThe reintroduction of strict reporting rules following the SEBI boards 28 June 2023 meeting represents a public admission of guilt by the regulatory body even though the horse has bolted the stable Ramesh claimedFinal reports on these critical questions are awaited Will the SEBI do its fiduciary duty and identify the source of the Rs 20000 crore of benami overseas funds that have flowed into the Adani Group he askedThe Congress leader said only a JPC can examine how the Modi government flouted rules norms and procedures to help the PMs favourite business groupThe SEBI on Friday informed the apex court that it has completed the probe in all but two allegations against the Adani Group and is still awaiting information from five tax havens on actual owners behind foreign investors investing in the conglomerateThe US shortseller Hindenburg Research in a report released on January 24 alleged accounting fraud stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens by the Adani Group triggering a stock market routThe Adani Group has denied all allegations by HindenburgThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever