The Congress on Thursday asserted that the closure of Hindenburg Research is not a clean chit for “Modani” and reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the matter.

Notably, in 2023, the Hindenburg Research report had alleged the Adani Group engaged in stock manipulation and accounting fraud schemes over the course of decades. The Adani Group had refuted the allegations.

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Nate Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg Research, on Thursday announced that he has decided to close down the operations of his investigative firm.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said, “The closure of Hindenburg Research does not, in any way, mean a clean chit for ‘Modani’. The Hindenburg report of January 2023 proved serious enough to compel the Supreme Court to set up an Expert Committee to probe the allegation made in it against the Adani Group whose prime patron is none other than the present Prime Minister (Narendra Modi).”

“The Hindenburg report covered only one part – securities laws violations – of the hydra-headed Modani Mega Scam. Out of the 100 questions on the Adani Mega Scam that the Congress party had asked of the Prime Minister in the Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK) series during January-March 2023, only 21 questions related to revelations made in the Hindenburg report,” he said.

Asserting that the matter goes far deeper, the Congress MP said, “It involves the abuse of Indian foreign policy to enrich the Prime Minister’s close friends at the expense of the national interest. It involves the misuse of investigative agencies to force Indian businesspersons to divest critical infrastructure assets and help Adani build monopolies in airports, ports, defence and cement.”

It involves the capture of once-respected institutions such as SEBI whose “discredited” chairperson continues in her position despite clear evidence of conflicts of interest and financial links to Adani, he alleged.

“These are all serious acts of blatant favouritism and brazen criminality that can only be fully investigated by the JPC. Without a JPC, the already-compromised institutions of the Indian state will continue to act only to protect the powerful and the Prime Minister’s friends, while India’s poor and middle classes are left to fend for themselves in a deteriorating economic environment,” Ramesh said.