The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Book Adani on Corruption Charges
The indictment filed in a United States court by the Department of Justice against Gautam Adani and six others contain serious charges of Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani being involved in paying bribes to Indian government officials at the Centre and states 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.
The indictment further states that evidence was collected from Sagar Adani, which provides specific details of the bribes offered and promised to government officials. “The Bribe Notes identified: (i) the state or region for which government officials had been offered a bribe; (ii) the total amount of the offered bribe; and (iii) the approximate amount of solar power the state or region would agree to purchase in exchange for the bribe. In most instances, the Bribe Notes also identified the per megawatt rate for the total bribe amount offered, the abbreviated titles of the government officials who would receive the bribes, and/or the allocation of the total bribe amount among government officials within each state and region.”
It is 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. 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 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.