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Adani Indictment: Concerned Citizens Seek Probe Into ‘Policy Corruption’ in Power Sector
New Delhi: Taking note of “disturbing concerns” following the US indictment of several companies, including Adani Green, in the alleged multi-crore bribery scheme in India’s solar power projects, several concerned citizens have demanded accountability in government and corporate players in India’s power sector. The also demanded that a comprehensive report on this be placed before Parliament within six months.
In a press release, the Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPSPS) said the indictment by the US is “not only about large-scale corporate corruption that evidently prevails in India and the USA but also about how fraudulent policies adopted by the Union Ministry of Power at the instance of favoured business conglomerates have defrauded electricity consumers across the country.”
It demanded that under an independent judicial oversight, a comprehensive probe should be ordered “by CBI/ED/CBDT and other investigating agencies to gather further evidence from the US SEC/FBI, factual evidence on the circumstances that led to the Union Ministry of Power adopting such misguided policies and issuing such illegal directives to States, the role of the concerned Indian business conglomerates including the extent to which they unduly benefitted, the one-sided nature of the PPAs, the role of public functionaries at the Centre and in the States and the extent of loss suffered by electricity consumers in the country.”
The PCPSPS said if the allegations are proved true, the concerned conglomerate and their promoters should be blacklisted from undertaking activities in India’s electricity sector.
Read the full release below:
Concerned Citizens Demand Accountability for Corporate and Policy Corruption in India’s Power Sector
The US District Court (Eastern District Court of New York)’s recent indictment of several Indian companies, including Adani Green, part of the the Adani conglomerate and the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a CPSE, raises disturbing concerns not only about large-scale corporate corruption that evidently prevails in India and the USA but also about how fraudulent policies adopted by the Union Ministry of Power at the instance of favoured business conglomerates have defrauded electricity consumers across the country.
In this connection, we refer to our statements issued on June 2, 2022, June 30, 2022 and August 16, 2024 in which we had repeatedly pointed out how the Ministry of Power irregularly invoked its authority under Section 11 of the Electricity Act of 2003 to impose an obligation on State power utilities to buy electricity from solar power plants to meet at least 10% of their total electricity requirement, irrespective of its unit cost and affordability. Similarly, the Centre created a man- made coal shortage situation across the country and the Ministry of Power equally irregularly ordered the State power utilities to buy coal from overseas sources to cover the shortage. Both those measures indirectly benefitted a few domestic private business groups known to be close to the ruling political executive at the cost of electricity consumers across the country. Such consumer-unfriendly measures so blatantly adopted by the Ministry led one to the inevitable inference that the policies adopted by the Ministry of Power during the last several years were at the instance of a few business conglomerates close to the executive, certainly not for safeguarding the interests of millions of electricity consumers, many below the poverty line. We hope that institutions like SEBI function independently so as to reinforce the integrity of the stockmarkets and elicit public trust.
The US court’s judgement, based on detailed investigations by US Security Exchange Commission and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, clearly points to how the Adani Group officials acting in tandem with a US company persuaded SECI and the State-owned power utilities in several States including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and J&K to sign one-sided Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that would enable those private companies to earn billions of dollars of profits over the next several decades, entirely at the cost of the electricity consumers in India. In the process, ably supported by the Ministry of Power’s anti-consumer policies and diktats, the private companies not only defrauded unwary consumers, crippled DISCOMs’ finances but also committed fraud on the public at large.
We demand that, under independent judicial oversight, a comprehensive investigation of this be taken up by CBI/ ED/ CBDT and other investigating agencies to gather further evidence from the US SEC/ FBI, factual evidence on the circumstances that led to the Union Ministry of Power adopting such misguided policies and issuing such illegal directives to States, the role of the concerned Indian business conglomerates including the extent to which they unduly benefitted, the one-sided nature of the PPAs, the role of public funcionaries at the Centre and in the States and the extent of loss suffered by electricity consumers in the country.
If the allegations emerging out of the indictment are found to be true, we feel that, not only the concerned business conglomerates and their promoters be blacklisted and prohibited from underataking activities in the electricity sector in the future but they should be forced to pay a deterrent penalty in addition to compansating electricity consumers for the additional costs borne by them on account of these acts of malfeasance. The culprits should be prosecuted for their criminal liability under the relevant laws.
We demand that a comprehensive report on this be placed before the Parliament within six months.
People’s Commission on Public Sector and Public Services, which includes eminent academics, jurists, erstwhile administrators, trade unionists and social activists.
CBI Should Book Adani on Corruption Charges: CPI (M); Arrest Him, Says Rahul Gandhi
Newsclick Report | 21 Nov 2024
Congress has demanded a comprehensive JPC to look into every aspect of the working of the Adani Group, the "deliberate" institutional erosion of the SEBI, SECI and government bodies, and the deals in foreign countries
File photo of Opposition protest in Parliament. Image Credit: PTI
New Delhi: After indictment of Gautam Adani and seven others by the US Justice Department, Opposition parties on Monday reiterated their long-standing demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani Group.
While Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi demanded the arrest of Gautam Adani, his party, Congress, demanded a comprehensive JPC, while the CPI(M) also demanded that the industrialist be booked forthwith by CBI.
In press release, the Communist party of India (Marxist) said the US indictment contains serious charges of paying bribes to Indian government officials at the Centre and state level.
“The indictment states that Rs. 2,029 crores was offered or promised to Indian government officials to get state electricity distribution companies to execute power sale agreements for the supply of solar power. The case has come up in the United States as the charge is that US investors were misled by the Adanis,” said the release.
The party said it was “shameful that such large-scale bribery and suborning of government officials by the Adanis had to be exposed not in India but in the United States through their criminal justice system,” adding that “Gautam Adani and his business empire have had the full protection of the Modi government to execute his unlawful and criminal activities. Prime Minister Modi himself had shielded Adani from any enquiry or prosecution on the charges emanating from the Hindenburg expose. “
The CPI(M) said the Modi government cannot hide behind any smokescreen now. “The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) must be directed to immediately file a case based on the material provided by the prosecution in the United States. Bribery of public servants comes under the Prevention of Corruption Act, which is under the remit of the CBI. A full-fledged investigation by an independent agency is required to unearth all other wrongdoings by the Adani group of companies.”
Vicious Nexus Involving Cronies: Congress
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ek Hain, Toh SAFE Hain”, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said “it is about One Monopoly to protect the looted SAFE!”
In a post X (formerly Twitter), Kharge tagging the PM and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Kharge said: “When a top ranking Indian businessman is indicted by a foreign country, it tarnishes our image at the global stage.”
He said, “The Indian National Congress has been continuously objecting to unethical business practices which profiteer and promote certain individuals by implementing Modi Govt’s policy of creating monopolies in key sectors and concentrating wealth in the hands of few by giving undue favours.
This entire vicious nexus involving cronies, compromised bureaucrats and certain politicians created by PM Modi & Adani has to be investigated and dismantled. This nexus severely hurts our people - poor and middle class, aspiring entrepreneurs, MSMEs, Startups and crores of small and medium retail investors, for it widens inequalities by snatching savings and opportunities.”
The Congress demanded a comprehensive JPC, which “not only investigates every aspect of the working of the Adani Group, the deliberate institutional erosion of the SEBI, SECI and government bodies, and the deals of Adani Group in foreign countries is the need of the hour.”
Arrest Adani: Rahul Gandhi
At a press conference, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi called for the immediate arrest of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, alleging that the Prime Minister was “protecting him.”
The Congress leader, who has been for long demanding a probe into various allegations against the Adani group inside Parliament and outside, said the allegations and accusations made by the US Justice Department must be thoroughly investigated and appropriate legal action should be taken.
"Adani should be arrested and punished for his actions," he said, adding that the charges against the Indian billionaire highlight “serious governance and corruption concerns.”
The Adani Group in a statement has, however, brushed off the allegations as "baseless and denied."
Gautam Adani, 7 Others, Indicted in US in Alleged $250m Bribery Scheme For Solar Power Contracts
Business tycoon Gautam Adani.
New Delhi: One of the world’s richest industrialists, Gautam Adani, who heads a conglomerate that includes diverse sectors such as ports, mining, energy, renewables, railways, roads, aviation, edible oils among others, has been indicted by US prosecutors in an alleged $250 million bribery case seeking favours for solar power projects, reports the Financial Times.
The business tycoon, perceived as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with seven other senior executives have been charged with “bribing Indian officials" and "concealing" it from US banks and investors.
“He (Gautam Adani) was charged alongside seven others, including executives of Adani energy subsidiaries and former employees of a Canadian pension fund. His nephew Sagar Adani, who is the executive director at a renewables company founded by Gautam Adani, is also among the defendants,” said the FT report.
The indictment notice alleged that they “orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors.”
According to the FT report, “US federal prosecutors said more than $250mn in bribes were “offered and promised” between 2020 and 2024 to people in the Indian government as part of the scheme, which was allegedly concealed from the US banks and investors from which they raised billions of dollars. They claimed that Gautam Adani met an Indian official to “advance” the scheme.”
After the indictment, shares of the Adani Group’s 10 listed companies tumbled in the stock market in India.
Recall that the Opposition parties led by Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have been repeatedly demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe into allegations of stock manipulation by the Adani group, more so after a damning report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, as also into the alleged role of market regulator SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch.
Meanwhile, the Adani Group in a statement denied the allegations made by the US Justice Department against Adani Green officials as "baseless." It said it ill seek "all possible legal recourse."
