Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chief Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday skipped the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, which was convened to review the regulatory body’s operations, citing an inability to “travel to Delhi”.

The meeting, postponed after Buch’s communication, was expected to be a grilling session between the SEBI chief and the Congress MP K C Venugopal-led PAC committee.

For her absence, Buch reasoned to the PAC that she would skip the meeting due to “some pressing reasons”.

In a media briefing which followed after the meeting was dissolved, Venugopal stated that the SEBI chief had earlier “sought an exemption from appearing before the committee, which was denied to her”. Her confirmation, Venugopal added, was only received after their denial.

However, he reportedly remarked, “Today morning at 9.30 am she communicated that she won’t be in a position to travel to Delhi. Thus, considering a woman’s request, today’s meeting was postponed for another day.”

This incident has invited a verbal tussle between the Congress and the BJP, as BJP leaders present in the PAC allege Venugopal of taking suo motu decisions. The faction further stated that it will approach Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over Venugopal’s “unparliamentary and politically motivated” approach.

Notably, the row gathered moss when the PAC suo motu took up the allegations against the SEBI chief on August 29 in a meeting discreetly titled to be a performance review of “regulatory bodies established by act of parliament”.

Previously, sources privy to the developments within the PAC had stated that it intervened after the string of allegations erupted against Buch following a tweet by Hindenburg Research earlier this year.

The investor research firm had alleged that Madhabi and her husband Dhaval Buch have stakes in Adani Group’s funds, the very firm SEBI was tasked to look into for market manipulation and insider trading.

Soon after, Subhash Chandra, the founder of the Zee Group, levelled serious allegations against Buch, accusing her of bias, corruption and unethical behaviour.

The allegations revolved around SEBI’s role in blocking the highly anticipated merger between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd and Sony Pictures Networks India.

Congress has been upfront in levelling serious allegations against Buch. The grand old party has alleged that Buch traded in listed securities, invested in companies based in China, rented out her property and gave ICICI shares to an individual from a company, which is currently under SEBI probe.

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