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'Modi-Adani Ka Coal Maal': INDIA Parties Ask Why ED Not Activated After Fresh Reports

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar wrote to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking why her government economic offence investigators were ignoring this evidence.
Gautam Adani. Photo: Photo: US Department of State/Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Gautam Adani. Photo: Photo: US Department of State/Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

New Delhi: Opposition parties have hit out at the Narendra Modi government after the latest revelations pertaining to alleged fraud by the Adani Group, highlighted by an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Financial Times.

FT reported that Gautam Adani’s company is “suspected of fraud by selling low-grade coal as high-value fuel”. Adani has rejected all accusations of inflating prices. FT reports from invoices it has seen make that “in January 2014 Adani purchased an Indonesian shipment of coal said to contain 3,500 calories per kilogramme. The same shipment was sold to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution company (Tangedco, a PSU) as 6,000-calorie coal,” regarded as one of the highest grades. Adani may have “more than doubled its money” even after taking care of costs of transporting the coal.

The Adani-Modi relationship, and they ways it has been allegedly misused by the business group, has been under scrutiny ever since Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and market fraud. Opposition parties have raised multiple questions on the matter, and received no response.

After the OCCRP and FT investigation was published, multiple opposition parties and leaders, part of the INDIA alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, have asked why action is not being taken against the business group despite evidence being available of wrongdoing.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while tweeting about the alleged scam, brought up Modi’s bizarre election rally claim that Adani and Ambani were bribing the Congress with tempos of cash. “Through this scam that has been going on for years, Modiji’s favorite friend Adani has looted thousands of crores of rupees by selling low-grade coal at three times the price, the price of which the common people have paid from their pockets by paying expensive electricity bills. Will the Prime Minister tell how many tempos were used to keep ED, CBI and IT quiet on this open corruption?” Gandhi said.

He also promised that an INDIA government will investigate this scam in detail, if voted to power.

The Congress also shared a joke movie poster on the issue, titled ‘Modi-Adani Ka Coal Maal’.

Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, who raised multiple questions pertaining to the Adani Group in parliament and was controversially expelled, too brought up the investigative agencies’ seeming lack of interest in this matter. She asked Modi to “please tell CBI & ED to investigate once they’re done counting my sarees & calling my friends”, referring to the raids she has faced from the agencies.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar wrote to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking why her government economic offence investigators were ignoring this evidence.

Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the “miracle” of the cost of the coal tripling happened not one but 24 times. “Jadugar hain Pradhanmantri ji (The prime minister is a magician),” she said.

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