India's opposition leader demands Adani's arrest after bribery scheme exposed

India's leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi has Thursday morning demanded the arrest and prosecution of billionaire Gautam Adani of the Adani Group following his indictment in a bribery case in the US.

Gandhi spoke hours after news emerged that Adani had paid $265 million (Sh34 billion) to Indian officials to obtain power supply contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years and develop India's largest solar power plant project.

"It's now pretty clear and established in America that Mr Adani has broken both the American law and Indian law. He has been indicted in the United States and I am wondering why Mr Adani is still running around as a free man in this country. Chief Ministers have been arrested, many people have been arrested and Mr Adani has done apparently one scam and multiple others probably but he has gone scots free," Gandhi said in a press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday morning.

Gandhi said the opposition in India has in the past helped cast the profile of Adani and his associates, and will continue to do so to expose his network.

"By the end of the day, India will know who are the people – every single one of them – who have hijacked this country. We are doing our job to make our people aware of what is going on. I guarantee you that the structure is going to collapse, it will not survive," he said.

Fraud charges

On Thursday morning, Kenya woke up to the news that Adani and three other senior executives had been indicted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in two actions alleging a massive bribery scheme involving Indian energy companies, Adani Green and Azure Power.

Rahul Gandhi, senior leader of India's main opposition Congress Party, who has demanded the arrest of Gautam Adani. (Photo File/REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)

They were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy in New York.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd., and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme. According to the SEC's allegations, the bribery scheme was orchestrated to enable the two renewable energy companies to capitalise on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project that the companies had been awarded by the Indian government. During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors and Azure Power's stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange," SEC said in a statement.

The three are alleged to have engaged in the bribery scheme during a September 2021 note offering by Adani Green that raised $750 million, including approximately $175 million from US investors.

"The Adani Green offering materials included statements about its anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts that were materially false or misleading in light of Gautam and Sagar Adani's conduct," the statement added.

The news spread fast in Kenya where the group has been picked by the government to refurbish and expand the national airport, JKIA, and a $736,6million deal with electricity transmission company, Ketraco, to develop, finance and operate power transmission lines and substations across Kenya.

In a quick rejoinder, the Adani Group denied the report by the US Department of Justice and SEC terming them as baseless.

"The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organization, fully compliant with all laws," the group said in a statement signed by its spokesperson.