By Aditya Kalra, Aditi Shah and Jayshree Pyasi

NEW DELHI, Jan 29 (Reuters) -

 India's Adani Group issued a detailed

response on Sunday to a Hindenburg Research report that sparked a $48 billion rout in its stocks, saying it complies with all local laws and had made necessary regulatory disclosures.

The conglomerate led by Asia's richest man, the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, said last week's Hindenburg report was intended to enable the U.S.-based short seller to book gains, without citing evidence.

For 60-year-old Adani, the stock market meltdown has been a dramatic setback for a school-dropout who rose swiftly in recent years to become the world's third richest man, before slipping last week to rank seventh on the Forbes rich list.

Adani Group's response comes as its flagship company is pushing ahead with a $2.5 billion share sale. This has been overshadowed by the Hindenburg report, which flagged concerns about high debt levels and the use of tax havens.

standards have been duly disclosed by us," Adani said in 413-page response issued late on Sunday.

"This is rife with conflict of interest and intended only to create a false market in securities to enable Hindenburg, an admitted short seller, to book massive financial gain through wrongful means at the cost of countless investors," it added.