Harish Salve says Hindenburg ‘mocking India’, ‘trying to browbeat SEBI’: Report

Senior advocate Harish Salve has warned that if organisations like American short-seller Hindenburg Research are given undue importance, they will go on to defame judges. He has said Hindenburg is “mocking India” and “we are giving it credibility”.

“Why treat Hindenburg as an oracle or gospel?” the former Solicitor General told media house NDTV.

Hindenburg has raised a storm in India twice, once last year when it made a series of claims regarding the Adani Group, and again more recently, when it claimed that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) did not probe the allegations against Adani because its chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch had an interest in offshore funds linked to the conglomerate. Both times, Adani’s stocks have taken a beating.

“We don’t respect people’s reputation”

The legal expert claimed that other countries would have said “such reports belong to the garbage bin”. “Hindenburg is trying to browbeat SEBI,” Salve told NDTV, adding that there should be a tribunal for defamation in India. “Tomorrow, such bodies won’t spare even judges,” he said.

According to Salve, Hindenburg is discredited even in the US. He added that it was “shameful” for some political leaders to take Hindenburg seriously. “In India, we don’t respect people’s reputation,” he said, adding that it was time we did.

Both the Adani Group and Buch have dismissed the allegations, while SEBI has issued a statement asking investors to keep calm and remember the disclaimer in the report that Hindenburg may have a short position in the securities mentioned therein.