\u201cModi is protecting him [Adani],\u201d says Rahul Gandhi after US prosecutors charged billionaire
\n MUMBAI
\nBillionaire Indian tycoon Gautam Adani should be arrested after US prosecutors charged him with paying more than $250 million in bribes to secure lucrative government contracts, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said Thursday.
\nGandhi\u2019s demand came after shares in the industrialist\u2019s conglomerate nosedived nearly 20% in Mumbai, the morning after a bombshell indictment in New York accused him of deliberately misleading international investors.
\nAdani is a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was at one point the world\u2019s second-richest man, and critics have long accused him of improperly benefitting from their relationship.
\n\u201cWe demand that Adani be immediately arrested. But we know that won\u2019t happen as Modi is protecting him,\u201d Gandhi told reporters in New Delhi.
\n\u201cModi can\u2019t act even if he wants to, because he is controlled by Adani.\u201d
\nWednesday\u2019s indictment accuses Adani and multiple subordinates of paying huge sums of more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts.
\nThe deals were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over roughly 20 years.
\nNone of the multiple defendants named in the case are in custody.
\nAdani and two other board members of his Adani Group \u201clied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors\u201d, US attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
\nThe indictment drove steep losses in flagship listed unit Adani Enterprises and multiple other subsidiaries immediately after the Mumbai stock exchange reopened on Thursday.
\nThe conglomerate\u2019s renewable energy subsidiary acknowledged the charges against the tycoon and two other Adani Group board members in a brief statement.
\nAdani Green Energy said it had decided to halt a planned bond sale \u201cin light of these developments\u201d, but did not offer further comment on the allegations.
\nHis nephew and board member Sagar Adani, also named in the indictment, told AFP in October that there was \u201cno political connection\u201d between Adani Group and the Modi government.
\n\u201cWe basically set up what the government really needs, in their best interest,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cAll the projects we got have not been granted by any concession but through an independent and transparent auction system.\u201d
\nModi\u2019s government has yet to comment on the charges but a spokesman for his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Malviya, said the indictment appeared to implicate opposition parties rather than his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cModi is protecting him [Adani],\u201d says Rahul Gandhi after US prosecutors charged billionaire MUMBAI Billionaire Indian tycoon Gautam Adani should be arrested after US prosecutors charged him with paying more than $250 million in bribes to secure lucrative government contracts, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said Thursday. Gandhi\u2019s demand came after shares in the industrialist\u2019s conglomerate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n