Lokpal clears ex-SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch of all corruption charges

Dismissing the five allegations brought against her, the Lokpal said that the complainants were unable to demonstrate even a basic prima facie case against her.

Calling the corruption probe “unjustified and solely politically motivated,” the Lokpal, headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, said the complainants had approached it “with unclean hands and the complaints are liable to be dismissed on this ground alone,” The Hindu Business Line reported.

Dismissing the complaints, the anti-corruption body said, “It is submitted that the complainants have failed to even frame specific and valid allegations under the Prevention of Corruption Act with the requisite legal ingredients of undue advantage or quid pro quo.”

Last year, the US-based short-seller firm Hindenburg Research claimed that whistleblower documents revealed that Madhabi Puri Buch had an interest in the obscure offshore entities implicated in the "Adani money siphoning scandal."

The complaints against her were those of financial misconduct and conflict of interest during her tenure at the regulator as a whole-time member and as the chairperson.

It was alleged that Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, had hidden stakes in the exact same obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds, found in the same complex nested structure, used by Vinod Adani.

In January 2023, Hindenburg Research made serious accusations against billionaire Gautam Adani's extensive ports-to-power conglomerate, alleging stock market manipulation and financial misconduct.

However, Gautam Adani had repeatedly and categorically denied all allegations made by the short-selling firm.