New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said the “Modani ecosystem” was attempting to dilute the seriousness of the bribery allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani in the US, with Rahul Gandhi accusing the government of protecting the businessman.
The opposition party also dismissed the remarks of lawyers Mahesh Jethmalani and Mukul Rohatgi on the bribery allegations and said there was an attempt to damage control through denial.
The Congress demanded that the allegations against Adani be discussed in detail in Parliament and investigative agencies, as well as SEBI, impartially probe these charges.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, asked why Adani was not in jail when hundreds of people were arrested in the country on “tiny” charges.
“You think the Adanis are going to accept the charges? Which world are you living in? Obviously, he is going to deny the charges,” he said when asked about the Adani Group denying the charges.
“The point is he has to be arrested. As we have said, hundreds of people are being arrested on tiny charges and the gentleman has been indicted in the US for thousands of crores. He should be in jail… The government is protecting him,” the former Congress chief said.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “Not surprisingly, the Modani ecosystem has let loose big legal cannons this morning. Now, faced with serious action in other countries whose systems it cannot intimidate or erode, the Modani ecosystem is attempting damage control through denial.”
This laughable attempt cannot dilute the seriousness of the charges levelled by US agencies, he asserted.
“There is no escaping the fact that the (US) Department of Justice indictment clearly says that Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani, and others ‘devised a scheme to offer, authorise, make and promise to make bribe payments to Indian government officials in exchange for the government officials causing state electricity distribution companies to enter into PSAs with SECI’ (para 47),” Ramesh said in a post on X.
“It also says that they ‘offered and promised to Indian government officials approximately Rs 2,029 crore (approximately USD 265 million) in bribes in exchange for Indian government officials causing the state electricity distribution companies to execute PSAs’ (para 49),” he pointed out.
Furthermore, it alleges corruption at the highest levels, saying that Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain “secretly influenced the SECI process for reallocation of the 2.3 GW PPAs to the Indian Energy Company’s subsidiary”, Ramesh added.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is a public sector enterprise under the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, he pointed out.
By rights, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and SEBI should be carrying out investigations proactively in the face of these revelations, the Congress leader said.
It is for them to carry out their obligation to the nation, rather than act as tools of a corrupt political-business nexus, he said.
“This is the moment of reckoning for our institutions and the Indians who occupy those offices. History will neither forgive nor forget this moment. As for our part, we will continue to raise these issues in Parliament and with the people,” Ramesh asserted.
Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate took a swipe at the Adani Group, listing the action being taken against the conglomerate in various countries after the US indictment.
French company Total Energy has decided that it will not make any investment in the Adani Group in future while Sri Lanka is reviewing the Adani Power deal, she said.
She also highlighted that the Kenya government cancelled Adani’s power and airport deal and a Bangladesh court ordered a probe into the Adani Power deal.
“Adani, surrounded from all sides, is safe only in India, because here no one can do anything to him because of Narendra Modi,” Shrinate alleged.
The Congress demands that Adani should be investigated impartially and arrested, and the allegations against him be discussed in detail in Parliament, she said.
“Our investigative agencies and SEBI should investigate these allegations impartially. The ruling party BJP, government ministers and MPs, and its ecosystem should stop defending Adani,” she said.
Earlier, former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi said during a media interaction, “I would like to say when you look at the chargesheet, you have to be specific to say so and so has done such an act, has bribed. It was alleged that the Adanis have bribed Indian officials in Indian entities related to supply, and purchase of power, but I do not find a single name or detail in the chargesheet as to who has been bribed, and in what manner he is bribed.”
“I don’t know how one can respond to this kind of chargesheet,” Rohatgi said on the US indictment of Gautam Adani.
Senior advocate and BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani also spoke with the media on the US charges against Adani and said that, given the nature of the indictment, the sketchy evidence and some very important circumstances, it seemed to be a “hatchet job”.
The Adani Group on Wednesday said Gautam Adani, and his nephew Sagar Adani had not been charged with any violation of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the indictment that the authorities filed in the New York court in the alleged bribery case.
