NEW DELHI: Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Jaya Thakur has filed a plea in the Supreme Court for a direction to set up the investigation against Adani Group of companies and his associates in view of disclosure made by US Short seller firm Hindenburg's Research report.
Thakur said various investigating agency, i e, CBI, ED, DRI, CBDT, EIB, NCB, SEBI, RBI, SFIO under the supervision and monitoring of the sitting judge of the top court should probe Adani Group of Companies and his associates, who have allegedly swindled lakhs of the crores of public money.
Her plea also sought to investigate the role of Life Insurance Corporation of India and the State Bank of India for their decision to invest huge amount of public money in the FPO of the Adani Enterprises at the rate of Rs 3200 per share whereas the prevailing market arte of shares of Adani Enterprises in the secondary market was Rs1800 per share approximately.
"Hindenburg Research report published on January 24, 2023 has put serious question mark upon company. The findings of Hindenburg report indicated that the Adani group of companies has inflated share price of their various companies and by using the inflated price they have obtained loans worth Rs 82,000 crores from various public sectors and private banks," it claimed.
The plea filed through advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma also alleged the company and their associates have set up various offshore shell company at tax havens such as Mauritius, UAE, Singapore and Caribbean Islands, for transfer of money through hawala routs and have thus indulged into money laundering as defined under Section 3 of the PMLA Act 2002.
Following the "disclosure" made by the Hindenburg report, the FPO of 'Adani Enterprises' was opened on January 27, 2023, wherein LIC, State Bank of India and several public sectors companies invested huge amount at the rate of Rs 3200 rupees per share, whereas in the secondary market the share was prevailing at Rs 1600 to 1800 per share, which indicates that the LIC and the SBI, without due diligence have put several thousands of crores rupees of public money at risk, it is not understood that what was their objected and to whom they were supporting and upon whom directions, the plea said.
The Supreme Court has already been examining separate PILs filed by advocates Vishal Tiwari and Manohar Lal Sharma, for a direction to probe alleged criminal conspiracy behind the Hindenburg report. The Centre had on Monday had agreed to a suggestion by the court to set up a committee to suggest measure to protect investors from such a market slide as witnessed in case of Adani's companies.
Thakur, in her plea, claimed the cause of action again arose, on February 10, 2023, when due to the disclosure made by the Hindenburg research report, the share prices of shares of Adani's companies fell down drastically to the level of approximately 50% as compared to the prevailing rates as on January 23, 2023, which has resulted into the loss of approximately Rs 10 Lakh Crores to the common man/ investors of this country and the equal loss to the various financial instructions and mutual funds which is again the public money and huge loss to the government exchequer.
