Former Attorney General Mukul Rohathgi has brushed off the latest allegations of US-based short seller Hindenburg Research, saying as an entity, it has “no credibility at all”. “We have seen their first attack more than a year ago. They picked on the Adani group. I had an occasion to see all their charges because I was involved,” Mr Rohatgi told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
In that case, the matter went to the Supreme Court. The authorities looked into it and ultimately found nothing, and that case was disposed of, he added.
Mr Rohatgi had commented on the matter after a domain experts’ panel was formed by the top court last year to look into the issue after the Hindenburg’s allegations first came in.
The panel said there was no price manipulation on the part of the Adani Group and the conglomerate had taken necessary steps to comfort retail investors. There was no pattern or artificial or abusive trading, no regulatory failure was found regarding Minimum Public Shareholding and there was no violation of compliances, the committee had said.
This time, the industry, BJP leaders, experts, investors and market regulator SEBI has backed its chairman Madhabi Puri Buch.
The Adani Group has refuted the allegations by Hindenburg as “malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information” to arrive at “predetermined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law”.