BREAKING| Hindenburg Report : Supreme Court Agrees To Hear On February 17 Congress Leader's Plea For Probe Against Adani Group

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on February 17 the petition filed by Congress leader Dr.Jaya Thakur seeking investigation against the Adani Group in the light of the report published by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research which alleged that the ports-to-power conglomerate has inflated share prices of its companies through manipulations and malpractices.The matter was mentioned before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for urgent listing. CJI initially agreed to list it on February 24. However, the counsel pointed out that two other similar matters are listed on February 17. Then the CJI agreed to tag the petition along with the other two petitions.Thakur's petition also seeks probe into the role of the Life Insurance Corporation and the State Bank of India for allegedly investing "huge amounts of public money" in the FPO of Adani Enterprises at a rate of Rupees 3200 per share when the prevailing market rate of the shares was around Rs 1800 per share in the secondary market.Alleging that Gautam Adani and his associates have "swindled lakhs of crores of public money", the petitioner seeks probe by investigating agencies like CBI, ED, DRI, SEBI, RBI, SFIO etc under the supervision and monitoring of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.It may be noted that the Supreme Court is at present considering two other PILs which have sought investigation against Hindenburg Research for causing stock market losses through short-selling. While considering those petitions, the Supreme Court had on last Friday expressed concerns about protecting the Indian investors from such type of market volatility and sought the views of the Union Government and the SEBI on strengthening the regulatory mechanism. The bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud had also suggested the constitution of an expert committee to review the regulatory framework. While making these observations, the Court was circumspect to clarify that it was not casting any doubt on the role of SEBI or other authorities.On February 13, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta informed the Court that the Centre has no objection to the suggestion to form an expert committee; however, the remit of the committee should be clearly defined so that no impression is given to international or domestic investors regarding any inadequacy in the existing regulatory framework. The SG also said that it is appropriate that the Union Government suggests the names of the committee members by placing them in a sealed cover. The top law officer of the Union added that SEBI was fully equipped to deal with the situation. The bench directed the SG to place a note on the suggested remit of the committee by Wednesday and posted the matter to Friday(February 17).The petition filed by Dr.Thakur today makes several allegations of malpractices against Adani group. As per the petition, the Hindenburg report discloses that Gautam Adani and his brother and his associates have indulged into money laundering of huge quantity of money, by using various offshore shell companies setup by them at various tax havens.The petitioner also says that it needs to be investigated whether LIC and SBI have failed to discharge their duty towards investors and common people by investing in Adani group companies.The petitioner, who is holding the post of General Secretary, Mahila Congress, Madhya Pradesh, said that she herself is having some investment in LIC and an account in State Bank of India.

BREAKING| Hindenburg Report : Supreme Court Agrees To Hear On February 17 Congress Leader's Plea For Probe Against Adani Group

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