On Friday, India’s foreign ministry stated that they were not informed beforehand about the charges against Gautam Adani by the U.S. Department of Justice. They also mentioned that they have not received any official requests for legal action from the U.S. yet.
Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a press briefing, “India was not informed before this issue. We have not had any talks about this with the U.S. government. Requests for legal matters are usually handled through mutual cooperation.”
Jaiswal emphasized that this case involves “private companies,” and India is not involved legally at this moment. He added, “We don’t have any requests from the U.S. about this case. The Indian government isn’t a part of it right now.”
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges in a New York court, claiming that more than $250 million in bribes were paid to Indian officials. This was to secure solar power contracts that could earn Adani Group around $2 billion over 20 years. Importantly, the charges did not name Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar, or Vneet Jain in any conspiracy to break U.S. anti-corruption laws.
The Adani Group called these allegations “baseless” and stated they would take legal action to protect their name. In their statement, they pointed out that media reports incorrectly suggested that Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Vneet Jain were charged with breaking U.S. laws. According to the indictment, it mentioned five specific charges but did not link these directors to bribery or obstruction of justice.
The Adani Group clarified that while three charges were made against certain company officials related to fraud, Gautam Adani and the others were not part of any bribery accusations. The news sparked a lot of debates in the Indian Parliament, with opposition members demanding a special investigation committee to look into the matter
Leave a Reply