A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) to set up a fresh expert panel to probe the Adani-Hindenburg case alleging conflict of interest in the previous court-appointed panel.
The SC is likely to hear the petition on October 13.
The six-member court-appointed expert committee comprises former SC judge Justice AM Sapre, industrialist O.P. Bhatt, Justice J.P. Devadhar, veteran banker K. V. Kamath, lawyer Somasekhar Sundaresan and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani
A petition by Anamika Jaiswal alleged that there was conflict of interest in the probe as former SBI chairman Bhatt, former ICICI chairman Kamath, and Sudaresan had close ties with the Adani Group. Bhatt is presently the chairman of the Greenko group.
Earlier it was alleged that SEBI has a conflict of interest in probe against Adani as well.
Petitioner pointed out that Bhatt works closely with Gautam Adani. Even Sudaresan had appeared for Adani at various forums. It was also pointed out that Kamath is was named in the CBI FIR relating to the ICICI bank fraud case.
"There is an apprehension that the present expert committee would fail to inspire confidence among the people of the country. A fresh expert committee may be constituted by this court with experts from field of finance, law and stock market with impeccable integrity with no conflict of interest," said the plea.
Earlier, Hindenburg had released a detailed report on Adani Group, which pointed out "substantial debt" including pledging shares of their inflated stock for loans. It was even alleged that Adani Group was engaged suspicious dealings. The Adani-Hindenburg report had paved way for a political storm with the Opposition criticising the Centre and the its dealings with Adani Group.
