A US court indictment of Gautam Adani and others for allegedly bribing Indian officials to secure lucrative contracts while raising funds from American investors triggered a political slugfest between the Congress and the ruling BJP with the rivals accusing each other of protecting the corrupt.
Armed with fresh fodder on the issue ahead of the winter session of Parliament, which begins on Monday, the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought Adani’s arrest, besides renewing its call for a joint parliamentary panel probe into alleged financial irregularities by the Adani conglomerate.
But, Rahul’s demand has landed his own party’s Chief Minister in Telangana, A. Revanth Reddy, in a spot since Revanth Reddy has recently been signing deals and receiving donations from Adani.
Moreover, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi, while replying to a query that Congress governments in Telangana and Karnataka had signed agreements with Adani, asserted that all those involved with Adani should be investigated, irrespective of who that was.
“Adaniji should be arrested and whoever is involved in the issue, an investigation should be conducted on them. Irrespective of who is and where he hails from,” he said. Interestingly, he also pointed out that it was not just Congress governments in Telangana and Karnataka but those in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh had also signed contracts with Adani.
“Wherever it happened, irrespective of whether it is an opposition or BJP government, investigation should be conducted and punishment should be given. But the main aspect is that the kingpin should go to jail, be arrested, investigated and interrogated. Efforts should be made to trace out who is behind the entire case,” Rahul Gandhi said.
At the World Economic Forum, Davos in January this year, Adani Group had signed four agreements with the Telangana government for an investment of Rs.12,400 crore in different sectors. These include Rs.5000 crore for setting up two pumped storage projects of 1350 MW capacity.
This apart, on October 19, Gautam Adani had met the Chief Minister and donated Rs.100 crore for the Young India Skills University being set up in the State.
CM Revanth Reddy met Gautam Adani and his son Karan Adani several times. Sometimes they met officially and sometimes they met secretly. There are allegations that while they talked about government agreements on the surface, there was some internal intrigue.
Revanth Reddy and Adani met on January 23 this year in Davos and again on October 18 in Hyderabad. Adani’s son Karan Adani met him at the Secretariat on January 3. There are reports that Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who claims to be the number 2 in the government, met secretly with both Adani and Karan Adani. It is known that Ponguleti met with Adani on October 3. It is known that before that, he met Karan secretly at his house.
