The Supreme Court-appointed expert committee stated that Sebi’s investigation into suspected irregularities in money flows from offshore organizations into the conglomerate has “drawn a blank” and that it cannot draw any regulatory conclusions regarding the stock price increases of Adani Group.
The six-member panel, however, asserted that there was evidence of a build-up in short positions on Adani Group stocks before the publishing of the report by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research, as well as profiting from settling holdings after prices fell following the publication of the damaging claims.
It would not be conceivable for the committee to infer that there has been a regulatory failure in relation to the claim of price manipulation at this time, taking into account the reasons offered by Sebi and corroborated by empirical facts, stated the report submitted by the panel. It went on to say that a strong enforcement strategy is required, one that is “coherent and consistent” with the legislative stance Sebi has taken.
The committee claims that it is likewise impossible to accuse Sebi of failing to enforce its regulations on related party transactions or minimum public shareholding requirements. The committee was established by the supreme court in tandem with the Sebi probe into claims against Adani Group and the decline in the shares of the apples-to-port conglomerate brought on by Hindenburg’s allegations. The expert panel, which included OP Bhatt, KV Kamath, Nandan Nilekani, and Somsekhar Sundaresan, was presided over by retired Supreme Court Justice AM Sapre.
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