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Madhabii Puri Buch (Pic: Mint)
The pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in a stock filing on Tuesday that it has paid fees to Dhaval Buch, the husband of the SEBI chief. Still, it denied allegations of any conflict of interest.
“It has come to our attention that there are certain allegations pertaining to our engagement with Agora Advisory Private Limited. We would like to clarify that for a limited period from October 2020 to April 2021, we engaged the services of Mr. Dhaval Buch of Agora Advisory Private Limited for leadership coaching for a total remuneration of Rs. 6,58,000,” Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in the stock filing.
It was before Madhabi's SEBI tenure
The Congress on Tuesday alleged that SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch earned consultancy fees through Agora Advisory Pvt Ltd from listed companies, including Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Pidilite Ltd, and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. This raised concerns of conflict of interest for Ms Buch. However, the Congress did not provide any proof of its allegations.
“Mr. Dhaval Buch’s work in India and globally for Unilever was well-suited to coach the identified leader in our company, and the remuneration paid to Mr. Buch was in line with that of other coaches. The assignment started and ended well before Ms Madhabi Buch’s term as SEBI chairperson. Any suggestion that the company was treated differently by SEBI as a result of this would be baseless and malafide,” the company added.
Previously, Mahindra denied Congress' claims and said, “We categorically state that we have not requested the SEBI for any preferential treatment at any point. We maintain the highest standards of corporate governance. We consider these allegations false and misleading in nature.”
The ICICI conncetion
On September 2, the Congress alleged that the SEBI chief was drawing a ‘salary’ from ICICI Bank Ltd, her former employer, and its subsidiary ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co despite retiring from the group in 2013 and joining the SEBI. Consequently, ICICI Bank denied paying a salary or granting stock options to her after her retirement and other than her retiral benefits in a stock filing.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
