Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi speaks to NDTV on the Hindenburg matter
Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi today described US short seller Hindenburg Research as a "dubious organisation", after the short seller that attacked the Adani Group announced it would shut down.
Hindenburg founder Nate Anderson on Wednesday said the short seller has completed the projects it was handling. The announcement comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration event. There is speculation Hindenburg is disbanding to avoid a possible India-US joint investigation.
Mr Rohatgi, who is also the former Attorney General for India, told NDTV Hindenburg had been constantly attacking the Indian economy and a company, shaking the confidence of the Indian markets and "affecting the investments of millions of people."
"Look, I don't think anybody could accept or, you know, find out anything more about a dubious organisation, an organisation which says that they are short sellers. They say that they are out to create havoc in share markets... And I think they have realised that it is a shoot and scoot policy," Mr Rohatgi told NDTv.
"And therefore, they want to just close down because they don't want to face any investigation, either in India or the US or any other jurisdiction. And maybe they fear that when President Trump takes over, he may look into the complaints filed by Indian bodies and industrial houses or Indian government entities," the senior lawyer said. "Therefore, the idea is to shut shop and run away."
He said Hindenburg will have to face investigation somehow.
"The people who are behind this dubious organisation, they will certainly be liable and they can certainly be tracked down wherever they are. And they must face the heat and face the action," Mr Rohatgi said.
The matter had turned political with the Congress and other Opposition parties seeking a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Hindenburg report, despite India's institutions and the Supreme Court completely dismissing Hindenburg's "findings".
"See, the Opposition parties were just using it as a tool to attack the government or attack the industrial house or houses concerned. But now it is very clear that this Hindenburg body is a completely dubious body," Mr Rohatgi told NDTV. "So why should it brook any further discussion, much less a JPC. JPC is a very important parliamentary body. It should focus on other important things, and not on a dubious body like this, which just produces rubbish reports to sensationalise delicate markets and economies."
He pointed at billionaire George Soros in the Hindenburg matter.
"... It appears to me that there is a foreign hand which is interested in destabilising the Indian economy... And one name which comes to my mind is that of a multi-billionaire called Mr George Soros. He has been making all kinds of statements against the dispensation in this country," the senior lawyer said.
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani at the annual general meeting in June said the group "faced baseless accusations made by a foreign short seller that questioned our decades of hard work."
"In the face of an unprecedented attack on our integrity and reputation, we fought back and proved that no challenge could weaken the foundations on which your Group has been established," he said.
(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.)
