Adani row: Jaya Thakur approaches SC seeking investigation

Congress leader Jaya Thakur on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court seeking investigation against the Adani Group in the wake of the allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud levelled by the US-based Hindenburg Research.

The petitioner has alleged that Gautam Adani and his associates have swindled lakhs of crores of public money and sought a probe by investigating agencies under the supervision and monitoring of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.

This is the third petition filed in the top court on the Adani-Hindenburg issue. The Supreme Court is already seized of two petitions seeking investigation and is scheduled to hear it on February 17.

As per the petition, “The Adani Group of companies and their associates have set up offshore shell companies in tax havens such as Mauritius, Cyprus, UAE, Singapore and the Caribbean Islands, for the transfer of money through the hawala route.”

The plea also seeks a probe into the role of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) for allegedly investing huge amounts of public money in the FPO of Adani Enterprises at a rate of Rs 3,200 per share when the prevailing market rate of the shares was around Rs 1,800 per share in the secondary market.

The plea further pointed out, “Despite glaring and serious violations of the SEBI Act, 1992, neither SEBI nor the RBI has taken any action or initiated any investigation against the Adani Group.”

“The act of the Adani Group to inflate its share prices for seeking bank loans and the failure of the authorities to take any action against the Adani Group has lowered the confidence of overseas investors,” the plea stated.