Wockhardt has denied allegations made by the Congress of rental payments by its affiliate Carol Info Services to Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), and its connection with certain orders passed by the market regulator.
“We categorically deny these allegations and state that these are completely baseless and misleading. The company has acted and continues to act in compliance with all applicable laws,’’ Wockhardt said in a regulatory filing late on Friday.
Wockhardt’s submission came after the main opposition party launched fresh allegations against Buch. The party’s media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, said that between 2018 and 2024, Buch — as a whole-time member and later as the chief of Sebi — received rental income of ₹2.16 crore from Carol Info Services.
He added that the Mumbai-based firm was also being investigated by Sebi for various cases, including that of insider trading during 2023.
While levelling the charges of receiving rental income, Khera had claimed that it was an outright case of corruption and that it also violated sections 4, 7 and 8 of Sebi’s 2008 code on conflict of interests for members of its board. He added that previous Sebi chairmen took care to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The accusations made by the Congress had led to shares of Wockhardt ending with losses of 5 per cent at ₹1,034.60 on the BSE on Friday.
Sebi chairperson Buch has not yet responded to the allegations made by the political party.
She has also not commented on its earlier charge of conflict of interest vis-à-vis ICICI Bank.
The Congress claimed that Buch drew a salary and other compensation from the private sector bank between 2017 and 2021 when she was a whole-time member of Sebi. It said that the total salary paid to Buch by ICICI Bank over the four years stood at ₹12.63 crore.
Buch was made a whole-time member in April 2017 and Sebi chairperson in March 2022. It further claimed that apart from the salary, she also got ₹22.41 lakh as income from ICICI Prudential between 2017 and 2024 when she was the whole-time member and later as Sebi chairperson.
Reacting to these charges, ICICI Bank had said that it has not paid any salary or granted ESOPs to Buch after her retirement on October 31, 2013, other than her retiral benefits. It added that during her employment with the ICICI Group, she received compensation in the form of salary, retiral benefits, bonus and ESOPs, in line with applicable policies.
Last month, Hindenburg Research had alleged that Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had investments in obscure offshore entities in Bermuda and Mauritius, that were used by Vinod Adani, the elder brother of Gautam Adani, to invest in Indian markets and push up stock prices of group firms.
It also alleged that from April 2017 to March 2022, while Buch was a whole-time member and chairperson at Sebi, she had a 100 per cent interest in an offshore Singaporean consulting firm called Agora Partners. It also claimed that Buch had a 99 per cent stake in an Indian consulting business called Agora Advisory, where her husband is a director.
Since then, Buch has come under attack from the Congress and other political parties, which have sought her resignation.
