Gautam Adani US indictment: Leaders of several INDIA bloc parties protested on Wednesday over the US indictment of the billionaire industrialist and called for a joint parliamentary probe. The parties said that a JPC is necessitated over the various allegations against the conglomerate in several scams.
This comes after US prosecutors accused Adani and co of bribing Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for its solar power projects. The US prosecutors named a few states, including Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Jammu and Kashmir in the Rs 2,200 crore bribery scheme for which sale deeds were signed by the company and the states between July 2021 and February 2022.
While Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was not present in the protests on Wednesday, other MPs of the Congress, AAP, RJD, Shiv Sena (UBT), DMK and the Left parties participated. They raised slogans in favour of their demand while holding a banner that read ‘Modi-Adani are one’. The TMC did not participate in the protests.
Apart from the JPC, Gandhi had also sought the immediate arrest of Gautam Adani.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat had issued an advisory on Tuesday – the MPs had held a protest on the same spot on Tuesday – to the MPs urging them not to hold protests in front of the Parliament gates, saying such obstruction could affect safety and security.
US BRIBERY CHARGES: WHAT ADANI SAYS
On November 30, Gautam Adani, speaking at the 51st Gem & Jewellery Awards, said, “This is not the first time we faced such challenges.” “As most of you would have read less than 2 weeks back, we faced a set of allegations from the US about compliance practises at Adani Green Energy. Despite a lot of the vested reporting, no one from the Adani side has been charged with any violation of the FCPA or any conspiracy to obstruct justice. In today’s world, negativity spreads faster than facts. As we work through the legal process, I want to reconfirm our absolute commitment to world-class regulatory compliance…” he had said.
Soon after the US indictment made headlines, the conglomerate had called the allegations baseless. “The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied. As stated by the US Department of Justice itself, ‘the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty’. All possible legal recourse will be sought,” said the group.
Later on, Adani CFO Jugeshinder Robbie Singh too had said that the charges are related to one contract of Adani Green, comprising 10 per cent of the energy company’s business. The Adani Group has 11 public companies, said Singh, and none are subject to the indictment, and none have been accused of any wrongdoing.