Another plea in SC seeking panel to probe into Hindenburg report

NEW DELHI: Another plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking to constitute a Committee under the monitoring of the retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the Hindenburg Research report.

The petition has been moved by advocate Vishal Tiwari.

In his plea, the petitioner said that he wants to depict the drastic condition and fate of people when there arises situations of share fall in the securities market due to various reasons at hand.

"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.

Issue writ of mandamus/directions to the setup of a special committee for oversee of sanction policy for High power loans of more than 500 crores which are given to Big Corporate, the petitioner also urged.

"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 rout in Adani shares also impacted stocks of state-owned and private lenders with an exposure to the group, fuelling the fall in the benchmark indices, Nifty and Sensex, to three-month lows. Seven listed companies of the Adani conglomerate -- controlled by one of the world's richest men Gautam Adani -- have lost a combined USD 48 billion in market capitalisation since Wednesday and saw falls in its US bonds after Hindenburg Research flagged concerns in a report about debt levels and the use of tax havens, the petitioner said.

"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.

A report by a US-based Hindenburg Research surfaced on January 24, claiming that the Adani Group had weak business fundamentals, and was involved in stock manipulation and accounting fraud, among others.

The report triggered a sell-off of shares of all Adani Group companies.