Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Monday, Chandra said that he would not cooperate with the Buch-led market regulator in its ongoing investigation in an alleged fund diversion case against Zee Entertainment promoters.
Chandra said he has furnished documents sought by Sebi. The Bombay High Court had in June asked him to submit the documents that the regulator had asked for in March.
He alleged that Sebi under Buch scuttled Zee’s merger deal with Sony Pictures Networks India through its “motivated investigation” against him and his son Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive of Zee Entertainment. He noted that Sebi’s confirmatory order banning Goenka from holding a top-level position in any listed entity was overturned by the Securities Appellate Tribunal.
A senior Sebi official called Chandra’s claims “misleading, malicious and opportunistic”. “It is not uncommon for such entities to resort to such tactics and Sebi is committed to conducting investigation at the highest level of integrity,” the official added.
According to Chandra, minority shareholders of Zee were the biggest losers due to the failure of the Sony-Zee merger. “Sebi professes to protect the interests of the minority shareholders, but it’s them who lost the most because of the drop in Zee’s share prices after the deal with Sony collapsed,” he said.
