Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a statement, dubbed it the "biggest scam" of modern India
Jairam Ramesh. File Pic
The Congress on Friday alleged that fresh revelations in the Adani issue by a foreign publication indicate that "more than Rs 12,000 crore may have been siphoned out of the country in two years", reported news agency PTI.
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Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a statement, dubbed it the "biggest scam" of modern India. He claimed that this was "not a metaphorical loot" but "literally theft" from the pockets of crores of Indians.
Jairam Ramesh also accused the ruling BJP government of "helping" the Adani group acquire assets and "the BJP is kept flush with electoral bond funds which allows it to buy MLAs at will and break opposition parties", reported PTI.
There was no immediate reaction available from the Adani group on the allegations.
"This is the biggest scam of modern India. It combines greed and heartlessness with a cold contempt for the people of India. It is based on the conviction that there is no scam that cannot be 'managed' and that there is no issue that cannot be diverted from. But the Shahenshah is mistaken. India will not be captured by Modani. The people of India will answer in 2024," Jairam Ramesh said in his statement.
Jairam Ramesh said the latest revelations in the Financial Times newspaper which studied 30 Adani coal shipments between 2019 and 2021 amounting to 3.1 million tonnes, found a 52 per cent profit margin even in a low-margin business like coal trading, reported PTI.
Earlier on October 6, the Congress hit out at market regulator SEBI over its investigation against the Adani Group, alleging that India's institutions are "failing" its people under the Modi government and asserting that only a JPC could bring out the truth in the matter, reported news agency PTI.
The Opposition party has been questioning the financial dealings of billionaire Gautam Adani's Group after US research firm Hindenburg alleged "irregularities" and charged it with stock price manipulation. The Adani Group has denied all the allegations made in the Hindenburg report and claimed there had been no wrongdoing on its part.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh's attack came after a media report claimed that the SEBI is likely to tell the Supreme Court that the Adani inquiry began in 2014, but hit a dead end.
Sharing the media report on X, Jairam Ramesh said that after first having "attempted to hide" the fact that it had initiated an investigation against the Adani Group in 2014, it appears that market regulator SEBI will tell the Supreme Court why it paused the investigation in 2017 before being forced to restart it again in 2020.
"Reportedly, SEBI will tell the Supreme Court that 'the initial investigation did not yield anything'," Jairam Ramesh claimed.
"Let us recall the sequence of events that SEBI singularly failed to unravel: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in 2014 had investigated the over-invoicing of power-generation equipment by the Adani Group that siphoned off an alleged USD 1 billion in funds. The proceeds of this scam were handled by two Vinod Adani associates, Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli, via companies based in Mauritius and the UAE. It subsequently emerged that the same duo had set up two investment funds in Mauritius, Emerging India Focus Fund (EIFF) and EM Resurgent Fund (EMRF) that funnelled major investments into Adani Group shares," Jairam Ramesh said.
By June 2016, the funds held 8-14 per cent of 'benami' holdings in Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Power and Adani Transmission via shell companies in Mauritius, UAE and British Virgin Islands, Ramesh alleged.
"How was such a clear-cut and brazen violation of laws relating to round tripping and minimum public shareholding allowed to escape scrutiny? Why was a comprehensive DRI investigation that had already laid out the key facts ignored? What were the pressures put on SEBI to give Adani a clean chit?" he said.
Is it a coincidence that all this occurred during the SEBI chairmanship of UK Sinha who later became a director in an Adani-owned channel, Jairam Ramesh asked.
"India's institutions are failing its people under the Modi government. The truth of the Modani scam will only be revealed by a Joint Parliamentary Committee," he asserted.
(With inputs from PTI)
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