Srinagar, Nov 22 :
Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Karra on Friday demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe to unearth the names of politicians and officers who were allegedly bribed by Adani Group in several states of the country to buy “expensive” solar power.
On Thursday the US Department of Justice indicted the founder of Adani Group Gautam Adani; his nephew Sagar Adani, and others for allegedly bribing or offering bribes to Indian government officials to get them to sign solar power contracts. The allegations have been denied by the group.
Jammu and Kashmir is among five states named in the US court’s indictment of Adani Group.
Karra, while referring to the US indictment alleged that between 2020 and 2024, Adani and his co-defendants offered bribes to Indian government officials to secure contracts projected to yield over 16,000 crores, that is equivalent to $2 billion, in profits. These contracts, he said, were in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.
“Whenever Adani is mentioned, if anyone comes to his defense, then it is BJP. Therefore, the demand of Congress is that this grave accusations of bribery has to be investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which allegedly have credible evidence. But the BJP admits that the states are under opposition rule and centrally governed Jammu and Kashmir are implicated,” Karra told reporters in Srinagar.
“BJP agrees that the other states where all this happened were the governed states of the opposition, or Jammu and Kashmir, which was under the rule of the President. If they agree to this, then they are admitting that Adani bribed officials,” he said.
The J&K Congress President questioned that isn’t this a crime.
“We strongly demand this crime to be investigated by a JPC. Why is it that opposition chief ministers are arrested, but a close ally of the Prime Minister with Rs 2,000 crore allegations roams free? This selective enforcement of law is a disservice to the nation,” he added.
Karra emphasized that the period during which the scam surfaced, Jammu and Kashmir was under President’s rule.
“It was directly under the rule of BJP, Central Government. …We ask the JPC to investigate which politicians and officers were involved in this,” the Congress leader said.
Karra said it is evident that institutions tasked with investigating white-collared crime, that is SEBI, CBI, Income Tax, only failed to investigate Adani despite credible allegations.
“Instead, these agencies have been misused to facilitate Adani’s acquisitions of airports, ports, media companies and cement plants under the Prime Minister’s watchful eye. They have also been weaponized to target opposition politicians, dismantle opposition parties and imprison opposition chief ministers,” the JKPCC present alleged.
