- The hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are tied, says Rahul Gandhi of Inc.
- Adani faces accusations of bribery to ensure lucrative contracts.
- Group being investigated for alleged Inadequate use of tax havens.
In a scathing criticism for the alleged doubtful treatment of the Indian Prime Minister, the country’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, said that the reason why Narendra Modi could not face the president of the United States, Donald Trump, was due to Washington’s continuous research on Gautam Adani – Business Tycoon considered a close breath of the premier.
“The reason why Prime Minister Modi cannot face President Trump despite his repeated threats is American ongoing research on Adani. A threat is to expose financial ties between Modi, AA and Russian oil agreements,” Gandhi said in an X.
“Modi’s hands are tied,” added the politician.
The comments of the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC) refer to the United States investigation into alleged bribes paid by Adani to ensure lucrative government contracts.
In addition to American research, Adani Group, along with its 13 investors in the high seas, faces an investigation by the Bag Board and Exchange of India (Sebi) since Hindenburg’s investigation in 2023 claimed that the inadequate use of the tax paradise group. The group has constantly denied any irregularity.
The comments of the Russian oil agreement by Gandhi will be taken in the context of the purchase of Russian oil by New Delhi, which has become a point of discussion between India and the United States.
President Trump, who is quite unhappy with the treatment of India with Russia, has threatened to further increase tariffs of the current 25% in Indian goods.
“They are feeding the war machine, and if they are going to do that, then I will not be happy,” Trump said a day before.
Adani, 62, is the owner of the Adani group, which has interests in everything from the generation of energy and the Australian coal mines to the cement, the media, the food, the terminals of the airport and the Israeli ports.
The meteoric increase in the prices of the actions of Adani’s units, Adani’s flagship companies increased more than 1,000% in five years, helped the conglomerate be surprisingly rich and finance greater expansion.
The magnette of the tycoon offered Modi the use of a private company plane during the 2014 electoral campaign that swept its Bharatiya Janata (BJP) Hindu party.
A few years ago, Adani executed a hostile acquisition of the station NDTVA television news service considered one of the few media willing to criticize externally to Modi.
Adani hit the freedom of the press fears, but told the Financial Times That journalists must have the “courage” to say “when the government is doing the right thing every day.”
Rascal
In November 2024, the Adani Group was accused of accusations of paying more than $ 250 million to Indian government officials to ensure lucrative contracts worth more than $ 2 billion.
In addition, seven other officials to lie about the bribery to collect capital of international investors, including those of the United States.
In June 2020, a renewable energy company owned by the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani won what he called the largest sunrise offer ever granted: an agreement to supply 8 electricity gigawatts to a state electricity company.
But there was a problem. Local electrical companies did not want to pay the prices that the state company was offering, endangering the agreement, according to US authorities. To save the agreement, Adani allegedly decided to bribe local officials to persuade them to buy electricity.
The alleged hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes promised local Indian officials caught the attention of the United States Department of Justice and the stock exchange and securities, since Adani’s companies raised investor funds based in the US. UU. In several transactions from 2021.
This explanation of how the alleged scheme of the criminal accusation of 54 pages of Federal Adani prosecutors and seven of its associates and two complaints of the parallel civil SEC, which cite the electronic messages among the alleged participants of the scheme.
In early 2020, the Indian Solar Energy Corporation granted Adani Green Energy and another company, Azure Power Global, contracts for a solar energy project of 12 gigadrosa, which is expected to generate billions of dollars in income for both companies, according to the accusation.
It was a great step forward for Adani Green Energy, led by Adani’s nephew, Sagar Adani. Until that time, the company had only won approximately $ 50 million in its history and had not yet obtained profits, according to the secle complaint.
But the initiative soon reached obstacles. Electricity distributors of the local state relied to commit to buy the new solar energy, waiting for prices to fall in the future, according to a report of April 7, 2021 of the Institute of Energy Economy and Financial Analysis, a group of experts.
Sagar Adani and the CEO of Azure at that time discussed the delays and hinted bribes in the WhatsApp encrypted messaging application, according to the SEC.
When the CEO of Azure wrote on November 24, 2020, that local electric companies “are being motivated”, Sagar Adani supposedly replied: “Yes […] But the optics is very difficult to cover. In February 2021, Sagar Adani supposedly wrote to the CEO: “Only to know, we have doubled the incentives to promote these acceptances.”
The SEC did not appoint the CEO of Azure as accused, but the presentations of Azure values show that the CEO at that time was Ranjit Gupta.
Gupta was accused by the Department of Justice of Conspiracy to violate an anti-bidy law. He did not respond immediately to a request for comments.
Earlier this year, representatives Adani and the representatives of their companies met with Trump administration officials who seek to dismiss criminal charges in bribery investigation, Bloomberg reported in May citing people familiar with the matter.
In June 2025, Adani denied any irregularity in response to American bribery accusations, telling shareholders that no individual in the group has been accused under the Law of Foreign Corrupt Practices of the United States (FCPA).
“Despite all the noise, the facts are that no one in the Adani group has been accused of violating the FCPA or conspiring to obstruct justice,” Adani said at the company’s annual meeting.
“Even in front of the storms and a relentless scrutiny, the Adani group has never retreated,” he said.
– With additional AFP contributions
