Modi labels Adani issue personal, US SEC questions

The Congress on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already declared the Adani issue to be a personal matter and asked whether he would oblige the US Securities and Exchanges Commission's (SEC) request in the ongoing probe against the business group.

The opposition party's assertion came after the SEC told a federal judge in New York that its efforts to serve its complaint on Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani in the alleged bribery scheme are “ongoing”. This included a request for assistance to the Indian authorities.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the SEC has just informed a New York district court that it has sought the assistance of the Modi government to serve complaints on the violations of US laws by Gautam Adani and some of his colleagues.

"The PM has already declared the Modani issue to be a personal matter. Will he oblige the SEC?" Ramesh said on X.

To a question on whether the issue relating to Adani figured in the talks, Modi said at a joint media briefing with Donald Trump in Washington last week: "India is a democracy and our culture is 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'. We consider the whole world as one family. I believe every Indian is mine."

"Two prominent leaders of two countries never discuss such individual issues," he said.

The SEC submitted a status update Tuesday to Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, regarding its efforts to serve its complaint on Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.

It said both "are located in India, and the SEC’s efforts to serve them there are ongoing, including through a request for assistance to the Indian authorities to effect service under the Hague Service Convention for Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters."

The SEC said its complaint dated November 20 last year alleges that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani violated the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws by "knowingly or recklessly making false and misleading representations concerning Adani Green Energy Ltd in connection with a September 2021 debt offering by Adani Green".

In a parallel action, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal charges against Gautam and Sagar Adani, among other individuals connected to Adani Green and Azure Power.

Adani is being indicted by the US Department of Justice for his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 250 million bribes to Indian officials in exchange for favourable solar power contracts.

The Adani group has denied the allegations by the Department of Justice and the SEC and said they are "baseless".