The Congress has come out with a fresh set of revelations that it believes will amplify concerns about Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri-Buch’s conflict of interest as a regulator while receiving payments from a number of companies — some of which were under investigation for violating rules.

In its latest revelation, the Congress claimed that Agora Advisory Pvt Ltd — a company in which Puri-Buch owns a 99 per cent stake — received payments for professional services provided to six companies, including the Mahindra group.

The party said Buch’s company received a sum of ₹2.59 crore from Mahindra and Mahindra group alone between 2016-17 and 2023-24.

In all, she received a sum of ₹2.95 crore from six firms, including the M&M group which accounted for 88 per cent of all the money that Agora Advisory received during the seven-year period.

The other companies were Dr Reddy’s, Pidilite, ICICI, Sembcorp, and Visu Leasing and Finance.

But the party seemed to have dropped a clanger when it asserted that Puri-Buch’s husband Dhaval received separate payments of ₹4.78 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21 — a period during which she was “adjudicating cases of the same group” as a whole-time member at Sebi.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said Mahindra and Mahindra had paid Dhaval Buch a sum of ₹1,73,60,000 in 2019-20 and ₹3,04,57,500 in 2020-21.

The party went on to insinuate that the payments to Dhaval Buch were part of a quid pro arrangement linked to investigations that the market regulator was carrying out against certain Mahindra group companies.

The Congress named the companies as Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Trustee Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Ltd — none of which belong to the Mahindra group even though they sport the group’s name.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd is the only listed company of the Uday Kotak group. All three companies named by the Congress are subsidiaries of the bank.

The Mahindras pounced on the boo-boo to rubbish the allegations.

In a regulatory filing with the exchanges, they said the Mahindra group had hired Dhaval Buch in 2019 because of his expertise in supply chain and sourcing. He worked principally for Bristlecone, a group subsidiary which is a supply chain consulting company.

It went on to add that three of the five approvals that the Congress had adduced as part of a quid pro quo deal “do not pertain to the company or any of its subsidiaries”.

As for the other two cases, it said that one was a fast-track rights issue that did not require any Sebi approval.

The final case involving the waiver of takeover rules to enable the inter se transfer of shares in Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd to two family trusts were decided in March 2018 — long before Dhaval Buch joined the group.

“We consider these allegations false and misleading in nature,” the Mahindra group said, while adding that it had never requested Sebi for any preferential treatment. “We maintain the highest standards of corporate governance.”

When Congress officials were asked to comment on the mistaken reference to Kotak group entities as Mahindra subsidiaries, they said: “We will issue a response tomorrow.”

They added that the Mahindra statement had deftly side-stepped the charge levelled against the group for payments to Agora Advisory.

Pharmaceutical giant Dr Reddy’s and Fevicol maker Pidilite also came out with statements to clarify the payments to Agora Advisory, while insisting that these were above board and not linked to any “comfort” arrangements.

Dr Reddy’s said it had engaged Dhaval Puri — who was effectively running Agora Advisory — for a limited period from October 2020 to April 2021 “for leadership coaching for a total remuneration of ₹6.58 lakh”.

“The assignment started and ended well before Madhabi Buch’s term as Sebi chairperson,” it added. “Any suggestion that the company was treated differently by Sebi as a result of this would be baseless and malafide.”

Pidilite said it had engaged the services of Dhaval Buch in 2019-20 because of his expertise in supply chain and logistics and it had never faced any enquiries or cases from the regulator.