Hundreds of people arrested on tiny charges, why is Adani not in jail: Rahul

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said the “Modani ecosystem” was attempting to dilute the seriousness of the bribery allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani in the US, with Rahul Gandhi accusing the Central government of protecting the businessman.

The Opposition party also dismissed the remarks of lawyers Mahesh Jethmalani and Mukul Rohatgi on the bribery allegations and said there was an attempt to damage control through denial.

The Congress demanded that the allegations against Adani be discussed in detail in Parliament and investigative agencies, as well as SEBI, impartially probe these charges.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, asked why Adani was not in jail when hundreds of people were arrested in the country on “tiny” charges.

“You think the Adanis are going to accept the charges? Which world are you living in? Obviously, he is going to deny the charges,” he said when asked about the Adani Group denying the charges.

“The point is he has to be arrested. As we have said, hundreds of people are being arrested on tiny charges and the gentleman has been indicted in the US for thousands of crores. He should be in jail... The government is protecting him,” the former Congress chief said.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said: “Not surprisingly, the Modani ecosystem has let loose big legal cannons this morning. Now, faced with serious action in other countries whose systems it cannot intimidate or erode, the Modani ecosystem is attempting damage control through denial.” This laughable attempt cannot dilute the seriousness of the charges levelled by US agencies, he asserted. “There is no escaping the fact that the (US) Department of Justice indictment clearly says that Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani, and others ‘devised a scheme to offer, authorise, make and promise to make bribe payments to Indian government officials in exchange for the government officials causing state electricity distribution companies to enter into PSAs with SECI’ (para 47),” Ramesh said in a post on X. It also says that they ‘offered and promised to Indian government officials approximately Rs 2,029 crore (approximately USD 265 million)

in bribes in exchange for Indian government officials causing the state

electricity distribution companies to execute PSAs’ (para 49),” he pointed out.