Adani bribery case | He should be arrested: Rahul Gandhi, other Indian leaders react

Prosecutors in the United States (US) said on Wednesday (Nov 20) that Indian industrialist Gautam Adani was indicted in New York over his role in an alleged multi-million dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

Authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years and develop India’s largest solar power plant project.

> Addressing a press conference, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Gautam Adani broke Indian and American laws. “He has been indicted in the US. I am wondering why Mr Adani is running around a free man in this country (India).”

>  “Chief ministers have been arrested. Adani has done apparently one Rs 2000 Crore scam and multiple others probably but he is running scot-free…We have been raising this again and again…It is a vindication of what we have been saying, the PM is protecting Mr Adani and the PM is involved in corruption with Mr Adani…,” Gandhi, the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, added.

> Gandhi said that he would raise this issue in Parliament. “This man has acquired India’s assets through corruption. He provides support to the BJP, it is established. We will repeat this. JPC is our demand but we want that Adani be arrested,” he said.

> Before Gandhi, senior Congress leader Karti Chidambaram said, “First it was the Hindenburg report… Now it’s the US government’s Justice Department and the ACC which has issued an indictment. This is very serious and we demand a Joint Parliamentary probe. The SEBI must also come out clean about its investigations because they’ve been stonewalling it… They can’t hide this under the carpet anymore. Very serious allegations have been made.”

> “…Adani Group has brought disrepute to India…This is a very serious matter. The PM of India should come forward and answer this…,” senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh said.

> The claim by US prosecutors about Adani came before the Winter Session of the Indian Parliament.

> On Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Amit Malviya said that the timing of the allegations just before the Parliament session raised several questions.

> “The timing of the report, just before the Parliament session and Donald Trump’s impending Presidency raises several questions. That the Congress is willing to be a prop in the hands of George Soros and his cabal speaks volumes.,” Malviya said in a post on X while responding to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. 

Adani has been indicted in New York over the $265 million bribery case. On Wednesday, US prosecutors said that Adani and Adani Green Energy, former CEO Vneet Jaain, raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors.

According to an indictment, some conspirators referred privately to Gautam Adani with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man,” while Sagar Adani allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes.

Gautam, Sagar, and Jaain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

In a statement, Adani Green acknowledged the charges by the US DoJ and announced that in light of these developments, its subsidiaries “have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD-denominated bond offerings.”

In another statement, the group said that 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.”