Cong questions LIC’s ‘increased’ holding in Adani Enterprises

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday alleged that public-sector LIC is being “forced” to use its policyholders’ funds to “bail out” the Adani group and stressed the demand for a JPC probe is “essential and urgent.”

Congress general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh claimed in a statement that Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) holding in Adani Enterprises, one of the listed companies of the Adani Group, at the end of June 2021 was 1.32 per cent and by the end of December 2022, it reached 4.23 percent.

“The revelation that LIC’s holding in Adani Enterprises has increased while its stock value has fallen sharply once again strengthens the case for a JPC to investigate the PM-linked Adani ‘Mega Scam’,” Ramesh said on Twitter.

He said “serious questions” began to be raised about the Adani Group on January 24, 2023. “Now it turns out that LIC’s holding in Adani Enterprises had further increased to 4.26 percent by the end of March 2023,” he said.

The LIC had on January 30 said it has an exposure of Rs 36,474.78 crore to Adani group’s debt and equity, and the amount is less than one per cent of the national insurer’s total investments.

LIC’s total assets under management stood at over Rs 41.66 lakh crore as of September 2022. The disclosure by the LIC came amid Adani group stocks taking a beating on the bourses after the short-selling specialist firm Hindenburg Research in a report made a litany of allegations at the Gautam Adani-led group.