SEBI asks DSE chief to prove charges

NEW DELHI, May 27: The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has sought an explanation from the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) presid...

NEW DELHI, May 27: The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has sought an explanation from the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) president Paramjeet Singh on charges made by him against SEBI officials and the exchange’s executive director S S Sodhi.

Sources said that SEBI had taken a serious note of Singh’s charges levelled against its officials and the DSE executive director at a press conference on Monday. SEBI has directed Singh to clarify his statements and prove the basis on which he made such serious allegations.

When contacted, the DSE president confirmed that he received a letter from SEBI on Tuesday. "I will reply to SEBI and stand by my statements made at the press conference," Singh said.

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SEBI sources said that Singh’s charges on remuneration and perks enjoyed by the executive director without requisite approvals were highly provocative and a direct attack on the stock market regulatory authority since the terms and conditions of an ED’s appointment are first approved by SEBI and then by the exchange’s board of directors.

The DSE president, however, seems to be in a defiant mood. Singh said that he would not sign the annual accounts of the exchange unless he got the answers on salary, perks and expenses incurred by the executive director.

He shot off a letter to SEBI chairman D R Mehta on Tuesday seeking his intervention in obtaining information relating to expenses incurred by the executive director on DSE’s account. Singh alleged that despite the Finance Ministry’s directive in September 1996, the DSE administration working under Sodhi had not given details of Sodhi’s salary and perks.