New Delhi: The Congress Saturday alleged foul play in the Adani Group-owned Ambuja Cements’ takeover of another cement firm called Sanghi Industries Ltd (SIL) in Gujarat earlier this month — the party’s latest attack on the Indian billionaire.
In a statement it issued and also put up on microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), the Congress spoke about the $295 million deal that the Adani Group reached with SIL earlier this week.
According to Jairam Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha MP and the Congress’s media and communications in-charge, the deal between the two companies came over a month after income tax raids on Shree Cement, a company that was in talks to acquire SIL.
“In sectors ranging from airports, ports and, recently, cement, companies competing with Adani for prized assets have faced CBI, ED and income tax raids that have dissuaded them from proceeding with their bids, and the assets have ultimately gone to Adani,” Ramesh said in the statement, issued on behalf of the Congress.
In our Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK) series of 100 questions for PM Modi, the Congress party had pointed out how the Adani Group has repeatedly profited from well-timed, Modi-made raids by investigative agencies on its business competitors.
The latest episode is the chronology… pic.twitter.com/fiCTDiRCne
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 5, 2023
It added: “This is a classic case of state capture by the PM’s favourite businessman — theft on a national scale that is encouraged and facilitated from the very top.”
The Sanghi group’s unit in Sanghipuram, Kutch, is reportedly India’s largest single-location cement and clinker unit by capacity. Clinker is an intermediary product made during the manufacture of cement.
ThePrint has reached the Adani Group via phone and email. This report will be updated with its response.
Also Read: Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun, Episode 8: Congress asks govt if Ketan Parekh still has links with Adani
‘Long-standing misuse of investigative agencies’
In his statement, Ramesh alleged that a month after the raids, Shree Cement exited the race to acquire SIL, and it eventually went to Ambuja Cements.
After the deal, the Sanghipuram Port will further facilitate “Adani’s ports monopoly”, alleged the Congress.
On Thursday, soon after the deal was announced, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones (APSEZ) CEO Karan Adani said that the group will make investments to expand the captive port capacity of the Sanghipuram Port to handle vessel sizes of 8,000 DWT (deadweight tonnage), according to a PTI report.
“Given its importance for his close friends, PM Modi has left no stone unturned to ensure control of these assets by the Adani Group,” Ramesh said in his statement.
The Congress MP called the IT raids at Shree Cement a “long standing pattern of misuse of investigative agencies to enrich the PM’s cronies”. He further said that in their ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK)’ protest series earlier this year, the party had pointed out how the conglomerate profited from “well-timed, Modi-made” raids by investigative agencies on its business competitors.
“Prized assets like Mumbai airport, Krishnapatnam Port and, now, Sanghi Industries are being handed over to the Adani Group following raids by these agencies,” the statement said.
It further said: “We have every expectation that, as in previous cases, the promoters will be pressurised to deny that the raids affected their decision to withdraw from bidding. However the truth cannot be hidden: PM Modi is overseeing an unprecedented amassing of wealth in the hands of his close cronies even as inequality in India reaches historic highs and Indian citizens are crushed by record price rise and joblessness.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: ‘Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun’ Day 10: Congress questions Adani role in India-Israel defence ties