New Delhi, Sep 3 (Reporter) Congress on Tuesday hit back at the ICICI Bank and asked a series of questions, including why was the so-called “retiral benfit”, to SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, which was discontinued in 2015-16, resumed in 2016-17 and “continued” till 2021. This comes a day after the ICICI Bank’s rebuttal to Congress allegations with regards to payments made to SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch as the private lender had said “ICICI Bank or its Group companies have not paid any salary or granted any ESOPs to Ms Buch after her retirement, other than her retiral benefits.” The Bank further said that she had opted for “superannuation” with effect from October 31, 2013. Addressing press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the party had asked questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Buch and ICICI Bank in yesterday's revelations. Now ICICI Bank, a pawn in this chess game, has responded to the revelations. When Madhabi Puri Buch retired from ICICI in 2013-14, she received gratuity of Rs 71.90 lakh in 2014-15, she received retirement commuted pension of Rs 5.36 crore, he said. “…if there was a settlement between Buch and ICICI in 2014-15 and she did not receive anything from ICICI in 2015-16, then why did the pension restart in 2016-17?” Khera questioned. He further alleged that said that even after eight years of resigning, Buch was still exercising ESOPs whereas ICICI has written on an American website that if one resigns from ICICI Bank, then ESOPs can be exercised within three months of the resignation. The Congress spokesperson alleged, “ICICI paid TDS on ESOP on behalf of Madhabi Puri Buch. Now the question is whether such a policy is applicable to all officers/employees of ICICI?” “But if ICICI pays TDS on ESOP on behalf of Buch, then should it not be counted in the income of the SEBI chief? If it is in the income, then tax should be paid, so why did ICICI not show this TDS amount in Taxable Income? This is a violation of the Income Tax Act,” Khera said. The party had on Monday had alleged that Buch drew regular income from private lender ICICI Bank while being on the board of SEBI as whole-time director. It may be mentioned that in August, the Hindenburg Research has kicked up a fresh controversy by claiming SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch has a stake in obscure offshore entities that had links with the Adani Group because of which no action was taken against the business conglomerate, a charge denied by the chief of the market regulatory body. After the report, the Opposition attacked the government and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the fresh charges and resignation of the regulatory body chief...////...