Sebi withdraws press release on unprofessional work culture

For Puri, protests and internal issues have come at a time when she is probably facing the most challenging times in her stint.

The career banker-turned-regulator is battling speculations on whether a conflict of interest made her go slow on the probe against Adani Group and a raft of other allegations around it.

In what is unprecedented for any financial regulator, around 500 employees wrote to the Finance Ministry on August 6, against the top management, for what they called a “toxic” work environment, which includes instances of public humiliation and shouting down.

After the publishing of a media report about the letter, Sebi responded with a press release, which stated such claims are “misplaced”, which seemed to have irked the employees.

The regulator stated that some “external elements” had instigated its employees into believing that they shouldn’t be held to high standards of performance and accountability, though, it did not provide specific details.