Dr Reddy's denies Congress' claim of conflict in payments to SEBI chief Madhabi Buch's husband Dhaval

Pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in a stock filing on Tuesday, September 10, that it has paid fees to Dhaval Buch, the husband of the Sebi chief, but it denied allegations of any conflict of interest.

“It has come to our attention that there are certain allegations pertaining to our engagement 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 Buch of Agora Advisory Private Limited for leadership coaching for a total remuneration of Rs. 6,58,000,” Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in the stock filing.

Congress on Tuesday alleged that Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch earned 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 of conflict of interest for Buch. However, Congress did not show any proof of its allegations.

“Mr. Dhaval Buch’s work in India and globally for Unilever was well-suited to coach the identified leader in our Company, and the remuneration paid to Mr. Buch was in line with that of other coaches. The assignment started and ended well before Ms Madhabi Buch’s term as SEBI Chairperson. Any suggestion that the Company was treated differently by SEBI as a result of this would be baseless and malafide,” the company added.

Previously, Mahindra denied Congress' claims and said, “We categorically state that we have not requested Sebi for any preferential treatment at any point. We maintain the highest standards of corporate governance. We consider these allegations false and misleading in nature.”

On September 2, the Congress alleged that the Sebi chief was drawing a ‘salary’ from ICICI Bank Ltd, her former employee, and its subsidiary ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co despite retiring from the group in 2013 and joining the market regulator. Consequently, ICICI Bank denied paying a salary or granting stock options to the Sebi chief after her retirement and other than her retiral benefits in a stock filing.