SEBI CHIEF  is facing a threat to its credibility after a barrage of allegations against its chief, top fund managers have told.

Multiple charges, mostly around conflict of interest, have surfaced against Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), from at least four different corners over the past month. She has denied most of them and not publicly responded to some.

This comes amid a bull run in India’s equity markets, which are among the world’s best performing this year.

Foreign investors have pumped in over $6bn (£4.5bn), while millions of new mom-and-pop investors have opened electronic accounts to invest in a mutual funds and initial public offering (IPO) frenzy.

Trouble for Ms Buch began in August when US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused her and her husband of holding investments in an offshore fund used by the Adani Group, implying it was why Sebi was dragging its feet on an investigation against Adani over allegations of accounting fraud and market manipulation.

Since then a number of other accusations have come to the fore.

The main opposition Congress party has accused Ms Buch of receiving rental income from a company she was investigating. It has also alleged that she held an "office of profit" at ICICI Bank, one of India’s largest private lenders, continuing to earn large sums of money through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (Esops) long after her stint with them was over.

Subhash Chandra Goyal, the chairman emeritus of media giant Zee Entertainment Enterprises, blamed her for the collapse of a merger between his company and Sony Enterprises, stating "I am convinced that the Sebi chairperson is corrupt" and calling her "vindictive" in a press conference. He is currently facing regulatory action, charges of fund diversion and is barred from holding key posts in listed firms.

But perhaps most damaging of all is growing internal dissent within Sebi, which has now spilled out into the public domain.

On 5 September, furious staff members staged a rare protest outside the regulator’s headquarters demanding Ms Buch’s resignation. Around 1,000 employees had reportedly complained of a toxic work culture in a letter to the finance ministry earlier, local media reported. They complained of "immense pressure" and "shouting, scolding and public humiliation” becoming a norm in meetings.

Sebi has publicly rejected the claims as “misplaced”, adding that “junior officers have been misguided, perhaps by external elements”.

However, protesters on Thursday called for an immediate retraction of this statement.

“This is unprecedented,” says Hemindra Hazari, an independent business analyst. “Until yesterday it was allegations from the outside, now internal problems have become public. Something is seriously wrong.”

Ms Buch has strongly defended herself, denying any conflict of interest claims in the Hindenburg case, while ICICI Bank has denied paying her a salary or Esops and said she only received her retirement benefits after she left the bank. The Sebi chief has so far not made a public statement on protesting employees or the criticisms levelled at her by Mr Chandra.