With the Winter session of Parliament starting from Monday, Congress today demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the various alleged scams following the indictment of Gautam Adani and others by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) of the US.
Taking to X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, ”The indictment of Gautam Adani and others by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) of the US vindicates the demand that the Indian National Congress has been making since Jan 2023 for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the various Modani scams. ”
He said the Congress had asked a hundred questions in its Hum Adani ke Hain (HAHK) series bringing out the various dimensions of these scams and of the intimate nexus that has existed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ”his favourite businessman”. These questions have remained unanswered, he added.
He alleged that the SEC’s actions also cast poor light on the manner in which its Indian counterpart, namely SEBI, has gone about investigating violations of securities and other laws by the Adani Group and ”its abject failure to hold the Group to account for the source of its investments and shell companies”.
He pointed out that the ”INC reiterates its demand for a JPC into the transactions of the Adani Group, which is leading to growing monopolisation in key sectors of the Indian economy, fueling inflation, and posing huge foreign policy challenges as well, especially in our neighbourhood.”
He further said the five-count indictment of Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and others unsealed by the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York has revealed more shocking details about Adani’s criminal activities.
”It alleges that they paid over $250 million (Rs 2,100 crore) in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024. It states that the bribes were paid “to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts with the Indian government, which were projected to generate more than $2 billion (Rs 16,800 crore) in profits after tax.” It alleges that “on several occasions, Gautam S Adani personally met with an Indian government official to advance the Bribery Scheme” and claims to have electronic and cellular phone evidence of this.”
Ramesh claimed that ”All of this is consistent with a long record of fraud and criminality carried out with impunity with the obvious protection of the Prime Minister”.
The Congress leader further alleged that the Indian agencies and institutions have been captured by the BJP. ”The fact that it has taken a foreign jurisdiction to properly investigate Adani only shows how Indian institutions have been captured by the BJP, and how decades of institutional development have been undone by greedy and power hungry leaders. ‘
He further said ”the answer is clearly for a new and credible SEBI head to be appointed to complete the securities law investigations into the Adani MegaScam, and for a JPC to be set up immediately to investigate its full extent.”