Supreme Court to hear plea seeking probe into Adani Group on February 17
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea by a Congress leader, Jaya Thakur seeking a direction to set up the investigation against Adani Group of companies and his associates in the light of disclosure made by Hindenburg Research report.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud allowed a plea made by counsel on her behalf to tag her plea with two other PILs coming up for hearing on February 17.
Two separate PILs filed by advocates Vishal Tiwari and Manohar Lal Sharma sought a direction to probe the alleged criminal conspiracy behind the Hindenburg report.
Thakur, on the contrary, sought a probe into allegations of "fraud" by the Adani group of companies as disclosed in the Hindenburg report.
Thakur, who held the post of General Secretary, Mahila Congress, Madhya Pradesh, alleged Adani Group of Companies and his associates have swindled lakhs of crores of public money and they must be probed by various investigating agencies, i e, CBI, ED, DRI, CBDT, EIB, NCB, SEBI, RBI, SFIO under the supervision and monitoring of the sitting judge of the top Court.
The plea also sought to investigate the role of the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the State Bank of India for their decision to invest a huge amount of public money in the FPO of the Adani Enterprises at the rate of Rs 3200 per share whereas the prevailing market rate of shares of Adani Enterprises in the secondary market was Rs1800 per share approximately.
The petition said that the Hindenburg Research report published on January 24, 2023, has put a serious question mark on the company. The findings of the Hindenburg report indicated that the Adani group of companies has inflated the share price of their various companies and by using the inflated price they have obtained loans worth Rs 82,000 crores from various public sectors and private banks.
The plea alleged the company and their associates have set up various offshore shell companies at tax havens such as Mauritius, UAE, Singapore and the Caribbean Islands, for the transfer of money through hawala routes and have thus indulged in money laundering as defined under Section 3 of the PMLA Act 2002.
After disclosure made by the Hindenburg report, the FPO of Adani Enterprises was opened on January 27, 2023, wherein LIC, State Bank of India and several public sectors companies invested huge amounts at the rate of Rs 3200 rupees per share, whereas in the secondary market, the share was prevailing at Rs 1600 to 1800 per share, which indicates that the LIC and the SBI, without due diligence, have put several thousands of crores rupees of public money at risk, the plea claimed.
"It is not understood that what was their objected and to whom they were supporting and upon whom directions," the plea contended.