SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch, on Friday, issued a detailed statement denying a host of allegations recently levelled by the Congress Party against them.
Buch called the allegations “false, incorrect, malicious and motivated”.
The couple said all the information have been fully disclosed and taxes have been duly paid.
“Our income tax returns clearly have been obtained by adopting fraudulent means and illegally. This is a clear breach of not only our right to privacy (which is a fundamental right) but also a violation of the Income Tax Act,” Buchs said in a statement.
According to the statement, Madhabi has never dealt with any file involving Agora Advisory, Agora Partners, the Mahindra Group, Pidilite, Dr Reddy’s, Alvarez and Marsal, Sembcorp, Visu Leasing or ICICI Bank at any stage after her joining Sebi.
“The allegations are completely false, malicious and defamatory. Madhabi has complied with all the disclosure and recusal guidelines of Sebi, and in fact, maintained a proactive continuing recusal list with Sebi over and above the requirements under the guidelines,” it added.
Buch claimed that the “baseless allegations” reflected a clear disregard for the Sebi comprehensive legal framework and were motivated to mislead the public.
“Such allegations, devoid of factual support, seek to tarnish the reputation of individuals, respected corporates, as well as institutions of the country,” her statement said.
Notably, Congress alleged that Buch continued to draw salary from ICICI since 2017, when she joined SEBI as a whole-time member (WTM), and then took over at the helm of the market regulator.
It claimed that she held 99% shares in a company “actively providing advisory/consultancy services till date” and that her husband Dhaval Buch received Rs 4.78 crore as income from Mahindra & Mahindra. At the same time, she “as a Whole Time Member of SEBI was adjudicating cases of the same group”.