Read Time: 10 minutes

Synopsis

A lawyer has approached the Supreme Court, seeking an investigation into allegations made in a U.S. court against industrialist Gautam Adani and others. The accusations pertain to alleged bribes paid to Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars.

In his application, advocate Vishal Tiwari emphasized that the serious allegations of malpractice involving the Adani-led conglomerate warrant a thorough investigation by Indian agencies to uphold national interest and ensure justice.

Tiwari had earlier filed a writ petition which prompted the apex court to order a probe by the SEBI and the formation of an experts committee headed by former Supreme Court judge A M Sapre to look into the charges made by the Hindenburg report in 2023.

The latest application filed by Tiwari on November 23 said that the Security Exchange Board of India had earlier submitted its report stating that the investigation was carried out and out of a total of 24 investigations, 22 have been completed.

"Despite of the deadline given by the Supreme court in its order on January 3, 2024 the SEBI has not filed any report and conclusion of the investigations till now. And in the present scenario when the investigations report is not brought on record, it reduces the confidence in the regulatory authority SEBI," it said.

It further stated that SEBI has to inspire confidence by concluding the investigations and placing on record the report and conclusion of the investigations.

"As there were allegations of short selling in the SEBI investigation and the present allegations levelled by the foreign authorities might have connection or may not have but the investigation report of the SEBI shall clear this so that investors may not loose confidence," the plea said.

The application pointed out that on November 20, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unveiled charges against Gautam Adani, 62, Sagar Adani, 30, and six others. They are accused of orchestrating a US dollar 265 million (approximately Rs 2,236 crore) bribery operation to secure solar energy supply contracts from the Indian government. These contracts were projected to yield profits of nearly US dollar 2 billion (Rs 16,880 crore) over 20 years.

The indictment claimed that from July 2021 to February 2022, bribes were promised to Indian government officials in exchange for securing agreements with state electricity distribution companies in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu and Kashmir. These companies then entered into power supply agreements with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a public sector entity that serves as an intermediary for power procurement, it stated.

Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation, stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Dennehy, it further claimed.

The application pointed out that as per the press release by the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District New York, a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.

The indictment also charged Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the US Issuer), and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with a bribery scheme also perpetrated by Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain, involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects, it stated.

The lawyer had earlier in August 2024 filed a fresh application in the court seeking acceptance of a miscellaneous application for a direction to the Securities and Exchange Board of India to conclude its investigation into the Adani group as ordered by the top court in January, 2024.

The Supreme Court had on January 3, 2024 directed SEBI to investigate if any loss had been suffered by Indian investors due to the conduct of Hindenburg Research. This direction was issued in a batch of petitions filed last year seeking an investigation against Adani Group over allegations made by US-based Hindenburg Research and others.

The Supreme Court had also refused to transfer the probe against Adani Group over allegations made by Hindenburg Research to an independent agency while granting three months to SEBI to complete the pending probes. It had also observed that no willful or deliberate violations were done by SEBI and the court could not ordinarily supplant powers to investigate.

Case Title: Vishal Tiwari Vs Union of India