Rahul Gandhi asks Modi to come clean on  the accusations   

NEW DELHI / MUMBAI (TIP): The Adani group on Thursday, August 31,  battled accusations about the use of “opaque funds from tax havens in its publicly trading companies in order to shield the identity of its business partners”. The allegations were made by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), said to be a global network of investigative journalists focused on exposing graft and funded, among others, by George Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

The charges came just two days after a preliminary probe by the Enforcement Directorate claimed that dozen companies, including foreign portfolio investors and foreign institutions, had taken up positions just two-three days before the first adverse report on the Adani group was published by Hindenburg Research on January 24. Some of these were taking short positions for the first time ever and were major beneficiaries from the crash in stock prices of Adani companies that followed the report’s publication.

The release of “Hindenburg 2.0”, however, has led to only ripples in the shares of Adani group companies as compared to the meltdown that occurred in January. Following the report’s release, the flagship Adani Enterprises fell by 3 per cent and the other group companies slid by one to five per cent.

The OCCRP said the Adani Group routed investments in its publicly traded stocks through “opaque” Mauritius funds. OCCRP claimed these funds obscured the involvement of alleged Adani family business partners. It was indicating that these were ‘benami’ funds routed from India via tax havens into Adani group companies to inflate their stock prices. Soros had earlier spoken on the Hindenburg report and had questioned PM Narendra Modi’s ties with Gautam Adani. The Adani Group did not think the report was “Hindenburg 2.0”. Rather it felt these were “recycled” allegations backed by interests associated with George Soros and a section of the foreign media to resuscitate the “meritless” Hindenburg report. The group also claimed that the OCCRP’s claims were based on investigations from a decade ago by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) with the matter resolved by the Supreme Court ruling in March 2023.

Meanwhile, the opposition saw its opportunity to attack Modi whose close relationship with Adani is no secret.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, August 31,  demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come clean on the Adani issue before world leaders start arriving in Delhi for attending the G20 summit.

He also reiterated the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to look into the charges against the Adani Group. Citing recent reports published in two British dailies (Financial Times and The Guardian) about alleged stock manipulation by the Adani Group, Rahul said even the headline in one of the papers mentioned PM Narendra Modi’s close links with the Adani Group.

“These are raising very serious questions about the Indian Prime Minister just before the leaders of G20 are coming here to be our guests. They are going to be asking the question what is this special company? Why is it that in an economy like India the gentleman has been given a free ride? They are going to ask this question and I think it is very important that this matter is made clear before they arrive,” the Congress leader said while addressing a press conference in Mumbai.

“I don’t understand why the Prime Minister is not forcing an investigation (into the charges against the Adani Group). Why is he quiet? Why doesn’t he say that he is going to make sure that this issue is investigated and people who are responsible are put behind the bars?” he said. Describing the two London papers as “prominent global financial newspapers”, Rahul said the news would hurt India’s image globally.

He said it had been alleged in the media reports that a billion dollars were circulated through a network of the group’s companies before being brought back to India to invest in the group’s shares to inflate their prices. “The charge has been proved with the help of documentation,” Rahul said.

(With inputs from TNS)