Plea in Madras High Court to set up probe into indictment of Adani in bribery charges in US

Chennai: A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a probe by Indian investigating agencies into bribery charges levelled against Indian business magnate Gautam Adani by federal prosecutors in a court in New York in the US. 

The writ petition filed by advocate M L Ravi, who is also the chief of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, says the court should direct the Union Home Ministry to order a probe either by Central Bureau of Investigation or a Special Investigation Team or by the Enforcement Directorate into allegations against Adani and his group.

The New York court had on November 21 indicted the Adani Group for promised bribes to Indian government officials between July 2021 and February 2022 following which electricity distribution firms from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu and Kashmir entered into pacts with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for purchase of solar power. 

The court also issued an arrest warrant to Gautam Adani while the complaint details the meeting that executives of the group and the Chairman himself held with senior state government officials before they signed pacts with SECI. 

The petition filed in the High Court sought to know how can the agencies in India remain silent and be “mere spectators” when a court in a foreign land had unearthed corruption and began the process to prosecute the alleged accused. 

Quoting a press statement issued by the US Attorney Office, Eastern District of New York, the petitioner said the bribes had been reportedly given in exchange for favourable terms of solar power contracts. 

“Corruption erodes public trust in government institutions and hinders development. It causes economic loss to the country by diverting public funds thereby affecting the poor and marginalised,” the lawyer said in his petition.