Congress presses for JPC probe, says mandate of SC panel limited

A Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Adani issue is essential to present the “unvarnished truth” to the people, the Congress said on Wednesday after billionaire Gautam Adani’s elder brother reportedly resigned as director of three companies.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that while Congress awaits the report of the Supreme Court-appointed Expert Committee on the “Adani mega scam”, it notes that its mandate is limited to violations of securities regulations and lacks formal judicial authority over various regulatory and investigative

agencies. News reports suggest that Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod has resigned as director of three companies closely connected to the Adani Group’s Australia port and mining projects, Ramesh said in a statement.

“Vinod Adani has previously been alleged to have engaged in ‘brazen stock manipulation’ and ‘accounting fraud’ via ‘a vast labyrinth of offshore shell entities’,” he alleged.

“Likewise in Australia, Abbot Point Port Holdings controlled by him via shell companies in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands helped offload billions of dollars of Adani Group debt via related party transactions aimed at disguising the true extent of the Adani Group’s losses from investors,” the Congress leader alleged.

Two UAE-based shell companies controlled by him also lent $3.3 billion in opaque funds to the Carmichael project in Australia, as similar offshore entities controlled by him have done with other Adani Group firms, he said.

The Opposition led by the Congress has been seeking a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe after the US-based Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations against the Adani Group, including fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation.