Sebi chief, husband denies Hindenburg allegations as baseless
New Delhi (PTI): Capital markets regulator Sebi Chairman Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband on Saturday denied allegations levelled against them by short seller Hindenburg as baseless and asserted that their finances are an open book.
In a statement, Madhabi Puri Buch and Dhaval Buch also said it is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research against whom Sebi has taken an Enforcement action and issued a show cause notice has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same.
US short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged that Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puro Buch and her husband had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.
In a blog post, Hindenburg said 18 months since its damning report on Adani, "SEBI has shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities."
Citing "whistleblower documents", it said, "Madhabi Buch, the current chairperson Of SEBI, and her husband had stakes in both obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal."
Responding to the allegation, Buchs said in their statement, "In the context of allegations made in the Hindenburg Report dated August 10, 2024 against us, we would like to state that we strongly deny the baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report."
"The same are devoid of any truth. Our life and finances are an open book. All disclosures as required have already been furnished to SEBI over the years," the statement said.
Buchs further said they have no hesitation in disclosing any and all financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them.
"Further, in the interest of complete transparency, we would be issuing a detailed statement in due course," they added.
On Saturday, the Congress demanded the Centre act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulator's investigation of the Adani Group.
The opposition party also said the "seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land" can only be resolved by setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the full scope of the "scam".
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
