Another plea in SC seeking panel to probe into Hindenburg report

Another petition has been submitted to the Supreme Court seeking the establishment of a Committee to look into the Hindenburg Research study, which would be overseen by the retired Supreme Court judge.

Vishal Tiwari, a lawyer, filed the petition. The petitioner stated in his argument that he wanted to illustrate the dire position and outcome of people when instances of share decline in the securities market happen owing to numerous factors at play.

“Lots of people who had whole lifetime saving in such stocks get a maximum setback due to fall in such shares with a huge amount of money getting into drain. Various instances of suicides and other life-taking incidences come up because of such huge loss of money where lifesaving of individuals are invested in,” the petitioner said.

Hence the petitioner sought to issue directions to the Centre to constitute a Committee under the monitoring of the retired Supreme Court judge in the interest of “Nation’s dignity and prosperity” to enquire and investigate on the Hindenburg Research report published on January 24.

The petitioner also requested that the court issue a writ of mandamus or directives to establish a special committee to oversee the sanction policy for high-power loans valued at more than 500 crores that are granted to large corporations.

“In the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on billionaire Gautam Adani’s vast empire by Hindenburg, the market value of all 10 Adani stocks have halved with investors sitting with a colossal loss of Rs 10 lakh crore. In the last seven trading sessions since the release of the report by the American short-seller, the market capitalisation of all 10 Adani Group stocks is down by over 51 per cent to Rs 9.31 lakh crore. Adani Group stocks fell 5-20 per cent on Friday, wiping out Rs 3.19 trillion in investor wealth after Hindenburg Research said it stood by its findings of alleged share price manipulation and accounting fraud by the conglomerate,” the petitioner said.

The Nifty and Sensex benchmark indices fell to three-month lows as a result of the decline in Adani stock prices, which also had an effect on the stocks of state-owned and private lenders with exposure to the firm. After Hindenburg Research raised concerns in a report about debt levels and the use of tax havens, seven listed companies of the Adani conglomerate, which is controlled by one of the richest men in the world, Gautam Adani, saw falls in their US bonds and a combined loss in market capitalization of USD 48 billion since Wednesday, the petitioner claimed.

“However, Adani Enterprises have rejected the report as ‘unresearched’ and ‘maliciously mischievous’ the concern of the present petition is what is the fate of such investors who has lost such amount of money which brings a life-changing and life-ending impact on such investors with no redressal available,” the petitioner added.

On January 24, a report by the US-based Hindenburg Research surfaced, asserting that the Adani Group had weak economic fundamentals and was, among other things, engaged in stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
The revelation sparked a sell-off of all Adani Group firms’ shares.