Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra slammed senior lawyer Harish Salve on Saturday for demanding a thorough investigation into the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research over the Adani controversy.
The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed an expert committee to look into any regulatory failures involving the Adani Group, the country’s second-largest conglomerate. The investigation was prompted by allegations made in a report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research accusing Adani companies of market manipulation and other fraudulent practises.
Salve told NDTV that Hindenburg ‘is no Good Samaritan’ and that the committee should find all those who have made a fortune by shorting stocks.
Since Hindenburg’s report, shares in the group’s flagship, Adani Enterprises, and other affiliated companies have lost tens of billions of dollars in market value.
“Loving way fat cat ex SG sitting pretty in London lecturing on how Hindenburg is to blame for middle class India’s Adani share losses! Mr. Nagpur Wakeelsaab make your fees from Adani while you can. Noone can save Humpty Dumpty this time, Sir!” she said.
Moitra further said, “Mister Salve should continue to defend his client in a court of law by all means. Doing paid PR for him on news channels as a fake independant expert voice is where the problem lies.”
The former solicitor general told NDTV that the committee must probe all those “who have made tonnes of money at the cost of the middle-class investor by shorting shares”.
Salve stated that regulators must treat it as market manipulation “and get them to disgorge and ban them from trading”. “We must set an example in our market – that first of all if there is a report, it must go to SEBI, it must go to the Serious Fraud Office, it must go to the ministry of corporate affairs – they will investigate and deal with such matters. But if you are going to use reports like this to attack companies, the SEBI will not sit quietly. They will go after the people who are exploiting market volatility, who have moneybags, exploiting volatility, hitting the middle-class investor,” the senior lawyer said.
In one more tweet, Moitra alleged, “Mr. Ex- SG now in London, named in both Panama & Pandora papers for using deceitful offshore entities, accepts paid Adani PR brief via a certain M. Agarwala to help in Operation Whitewash. Talks of middle class Adani losses – God, the irony!”
The Adani Group has denied any wrongdoing, defending itself in a 413-page rebuttal to the allegations. It welcomed the Supreme Court’s order asking for a committee.
The expert committee will submit its findings to the SC within 2 months, a bench comprising of CJI DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said.
