Pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, September 10, that it paid fees to Dhaval Buch, the husband of the Sebi chief, but denied allegations of any conflict of interest.
“We have been made aware of certain allegations relating to our relationship 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’s book of Now Advisory Private Limited for leadership coaching for a total remuneration of Rs. 6,58,000,” Dr. Reddys Laboratories said in the stock filing.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives alleged that Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch received 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 about a conflict of interest on Buch’s part. However, the House did not produce any proof of her allegations.
“Mr Dhaval Buch’s work in India and around the world for Unilever was well suited to coaching the identified leader in our company, and the remuneration paid to Mr Buch was in line with that of other coaches. The assignment began and ended well before Ms Madhabi Buch’s tenure as SEBI Chairperson. Any suggestion that SEBI treated the company differently as a result of this would be unfounded and in bad faith,” the company added.
Earlier, Mahindra had denied the Congress allegations and said, “We categorically state that we have not sought any preferential treatment from Sebi at any point of time. We maintain the highest standards of corporate governance. We find these allegations to be false and misleading in nature.”
On September 2, the Congress alleged that the Sebi chief was receiving a “salary” from ICICI Bank Ltd, her former employee, and its subsidiary ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co despite having retired from the group in 2013 and joined the market regulator. Accordingly, ICICI Bank denied paying salary or granting stock options to the Sebi chief after her retirement and apart from her retirement benefits in a filing before the shareholders’ meeting.
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