New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) The Congress on Saturday alleged that the public sector Life Insurance Corporation made huge investments in Adani Group stocks after the latter took a beating in the markets, and
demanded that Parliament's Public Accounts Committee investigate how the LIC was “forced” to make such investments.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the savings of LIC's 30 crore policyholders were “systematically misused” to benefit the Adani Group.
There was no immediate response from the Adani Group or the government on the Congress' allegations.
Markets regulator SEBI cleared the Adani Group of stock manipulation allegations made by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, saying fund transfer between group companies did not fall foul of any regulation. The SEBI probe was initiated after intervention by the Supreme Court.
Ramesh said disturbing revelations have just emerged in the media about how the "Modani joint venture systematically misused the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the savings of its 30 crore policyholders".
"Internal documents reveal that Indian officials drafted and pushed through a proposal to invest about Rs 33,000 crores of LIC funds in various Adani Group companies in May 2025," the Congress leader said.
The reported goals were to "signal confidence in the Adani Group" and to "encourage participation from other investors", he said in a statement.
"The question arises: under whose pressure did the officials of the Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog decide that their job was to bail out a private company facing funding difficulties due to serious allegations of criminality? Is this not a textbook case of 'mobile phone banking'?" Ramesh said.
The Congress leader said the costs of "throwing public money at crony firms" became clear when LIC suffered "a staggering Rs 7,850 crore loss" in just four hours of trading on September 21, 2024, following the indictment of Gautam Adani and seven of his associates in the United States.
"Adani has been accused of orchestrating a Rs 2,000 crore bribery scheme to secure high-priced solar power contracts in India. The Modi government has refused, for nearly a year, to serve a US SEC summons to the prime minister's most favoured business conglomerate," Ramesh said.
The Congress has been persistent in its attack on the government since the Adani Group stocks took a beating on the bourses in the wake of a report by Hindenburg Research, which made a litany of allegations.
The Adani Group has dismissed all charges made by the Congress and others as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
Ramesh further claimed, "The Modani MegaScam is very wide-ranging. For instance, it encompasses: The misuse of agencies such as the ED, CBI, and Income Tax Department to force other private companies to sell their assets to the Adani Group."
He also alleged that there was "rigged privatisation" of critical infrastructure assets such as airports and ports for the benefit of the Adani Group alone.
Ramesh pointed to alleged misuse of diplomatic resources to funnel contracts to the Adani Group in various countries, especially in India's neighbourhood.
He said the scam also encompasses the import of "over-invoiced coal by close Adani associates Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling" using a money-laundering network of shell companies, which contributed to sharp increases in the prices of electricity drawn from Adani power stations in Gujarat.
Ramesh also pointed to pre-election electricity supply agreements at abnormally high prices in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra and the recent alleged allocation of land at Rs 1 per acre for a power plant in poll-bound Bihar.
"The entirety of this Modani MegaScam can only be investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee of Parliament that the INC has been demanding for almost three years - ever since we published our 100-question series Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun (HAHK).
"As a first step, now at least Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should fully investigate how LIC was literally forced to make investments in the Adani Group," Ramesh said.
That will be well within its powers, he added. PTI ASK SKC SKY
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