SC-appointed panel, SEBI 'hit walls' in probing Adani group's transactions: Cong

The Congress on Monday alleged that the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee and the SEBI have "hit walls" while investigating the Adani group's transactions and stressed the need for a joint parliamentary committee probe to unravel the truth in the matter.

The Congress' assertion comes after a report by the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee said it has found no evidence of stock price manipulation in Adani group companies, while a separate SEBI probe into alleged violation in money flows from offshore entities has "drawn a blank".

Taking to Twitter, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tagged a media report which claimed that the Registrar of Companies (Gujarat), in a ruling earlier this month, has held that Adani Power and its officials had violated provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, by not reporting related-party contracts and transactions in the register of contract.

"As the Modani brigade desperately tries to spin the Supreme Court Expert Committee's report as a 'clean chit' (it isn't), more evidence emerges that Adani has engaged in multiple related-party transactions aimed at duping minority shareholders and unfairly enriching the promoters," Ramesh said.

The Registrar of Companies in Gujarat recently ruled that Adani Power had violated the Companies Act, 2013, by hiding related-party contracts and transactions. It imposed penalties on Gautam Adani, Rajesh Adani and Vineet S Jain, he said.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Committee and even SEBI have "hit walls" when investigating Adani group's transactions, Ramesh claimed.

"This is why we need a JPC to unravel the Modani MegaScam," he said.

The committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice AM Sapre, in its 173-page report, said that based on the data from the stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), it saw "no evident pattern of manipulation" in the steep stock price rise in billionaire Gautam Adani's companies that can be attributed to "any single entity or group of connected entities".

It was not possible to conclude whether there had been regulatory failures regarding price manipulations, the panel said in the report.

After the Hindenburg report stirred a political row and triggered a rout in the conglomerate's stocks, the Supreme Court had on March 2 constituted the expert committee to investigate if there was any failure to disclose transactions with related parties and if stock prices were manipulated.

The committee was to work in parallel with the probe by Sebi into offshore entities investing in the Adani Group. The regulator was first asked to complete the probe in two months and then given another three months till August 14.

The Congress has been demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the allegations against the Adani Group.

The Adani Group has dismissed the allegations as baseless.