The Congress party on Friday renewed its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani Group after an expert panel appointed by Supreme Court in its interim report found no signs of any regulatory failure around the conglomerate’s stock rallies in recent years as well as the rout since January when it faced a short seller attack.
In its report submitted to the Supreme Court, the six-member panel said that the Indian markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, has “drawn a blank” in its probe into alleged violations in money flows from offshore entities into the conglomerate.
The panel also said that based on data provided by Sebi it saw “no evident pattern of manipulation” in the steep stock price rise in Gautam Adani’s companies that can be attributed to “any single entity or group of connected entities.”
The initial findings not only came as a relief for Adani’s empire as well as Sebi, but also gave ammunition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which has been struggling to dodge the attack from opposition leaders, particularly Rahul Gandhi, who has been trying to link the allegations against the billionaire with Prime Minister Narendra Modi due to their perceived proximity.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, however, said his party “has all along been saying” that the court-appointed panel has “extremely limited terms of reference and will simply be unable (and perhaps unwilling too)” to unravel the alleged scam in all its complexity.
Ramesh highlighted five key observations, questioning the opacity of regulations and the committee’s inability to reach definitive conclusions regarding SEBI law violations by the Adani Group. He also emphasized the need for a JPC investigation based on excerpts from the report that he believes strengthen the case.
“Contrary to the boasts of the Modi Govt, the Committee has found that regulations have moved in direction of opacity that facilitates the disguise of ultimate beneficial ownership,” Ramesh said in a tweet, adding that the committee could not arrive at any definitive conclusion regarding violation of Sebi laws by the Adani Group.
He also cautioned against misconstruing the committee’s report as providing a clean chit to the Adani Group, asserting that such interpretations were baseless.
“We wish to say nothing more on the Committee’s report given the eminence of its members, except to say its conclusions were predictable and with all its limitations to spin the Committee’s report as having given a clean chit to the Adani Group is wholly bogus,” he wrote.
