The apex court on March 2, 2024, ordered SEBI to probe Adani regarding the Share Price manipulation and Financial Statement Misrepresentation and said to prepare a report by May 2, 2024. But SEBI had requested to extend the investigation duration by Six months because there are 12 suspicious transactions that contains further sub transactions and getting deep will require 15 months but SEBI promised they would complete the inquiry within 6 months.
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About SEBI
Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) which came into effect in 1992. It is a regulatory body that governs stock exchanges. It protects the interest of investors in securities, promotes the development of the securities markets, and also regulates the security market. SEBI ensures the investors or traders that transactions will be carried out healthily without getting without any kind of fraudulent activity.
SEBI has the power to probe a company if they get information that a particular company is involved in
stock manipulation or an employee is getting into insider trading and also remove the company from the stock exchange.
Overview of Adani Case
The US-based company named “Hinderburg”, founded by Nathen Anderson earns their income basically through short selling. They accused Adani has done share price manipulation and also the false representation of financial statements. After this statement, the share price of Adani suffered a sharp decline due to which Adani conglomerate suffered a loss of more than $100 billion. After this Supreme Court addressed this matter and formed 6 members
experts to look into the case which will be headed by former Apex court judge Justice AM Sapre on March 2, 2024.
SEBI request from Apex Court
Supreme court ordered SEBI to investigate and form a report on March 2, 2024, for which SEBI was given 2 months but SEBI in the meeting put forward that 12 transactions turned out to be suspicious that has many sub transactions which requires detailed analysis for which SEBI requested extra 6 months and also asked permission to check their domestic and international bank statements. Though checking this transaction requires more than 15 months SEBI assured us that
they would try to take out the best possible result within 6 months of duration. This investigation will include detailed auditing of Financial Statements such as Balance sheets, Profit and Loss Accounts, and Cash Flow statements.
Cooperation from Adani with the Probe
Gautam Adani said in an interview that he is fully in support of such an investigation and faithfully cooperates with SEBI and also expert committee to carry out their probe. He requested media not
exaggerate the matter and wait for the final report from SEBI. Gautam Adani is very confident from the beginning that Adani Group is carrying out healthy
business and had assured that they will continue their business and if SEBI needs any help they will be happy to help without any hesitation.
Statement by Congress Leader
The Congress Leader Dr. Jaya Thakur, questioned the State Bank of India (SBI) and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) regarding the investment made by them even after knowing that Adani prices were inflated.
Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh made a statement against SEBI. He hopes that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking more time
to complete the probe into the allegations made against the Adani Group by Hindenburg Research is not an effort to bury the scam.
