New Delhi: In the latest edition of its ‘Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun’ series, the Congress party trained its guns at industrialist Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani, even giving a tongue-in-cheek name to the sub-series — ‘Dikh Raha Hai Vinod’ (it is visible, Vinod). Launched in February, ‘Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun’ is a campaign aimed at highlighting the nature of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani’s ties to PM Narendra Modi.
Questioning the “dubious role” of a Chinese national named Chang Chung-Ling in the activities of the Adani Group and his “close association” with Vinod, the Congress alleged Chang is said to be involved in “smuggling petroleum products to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions”.
The Congress alleged that Chang’s links to the Adani Group are “extremely close” and that in 2005, he declared the same residential address in Singapore as Vinod Adani. It went further to add that Chang’s Singapore-based firm Gudami International was named by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) as part of its probe into the alleged 2013 diamond trading scam involving the Adani Group.
“Reportedly, Gudami was named in the first Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet against the prime accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scam Gautam Khaitan in 2014 and in a supplementary chargesheet against the co-accused Rajiv Saxena in 2017,” said the Congress. It also alleged that despite all of this, Gudami’s name “mysteriously disappeared from the third ED chargesheet in 2018”.
Firing away its first question at the Modi government, the Congress asked, “Did you ensure a clean chit to the Adanis’ close colleague in the AgustaWestland scam? Is this why the investigation has lingered for so many years? Are you not concerned that the Adanis may be involving a Chinese national in important defence contracts?”
For its second question, the party asked if the central government was trying to facilitate Adani Group’s defence sector activities by “misusing government agencies”.
The Congress said that shortly after allegations of corruption against AgustaWestland’s parent company Finmeccanica (later Leonardo) surfaced, the party then in government initiated a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter in February 2013 and terminated its contract with AgustaWestland for the supply of helicopters in January 2014.
Its second question to the Modi government is thus: “Leonardo was barred from future Indian military tenders on 26 August 2014. Yet on 14 November 2021, the government abruptly lifted its ban. Why, with the case still pending, have you lifted the ban on a company accused of bribery and corruption? Are you again trying to facilitate the Adani Group’s defence sector activities by misusing government agencies?”
While accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of facilitating Adani Group’s defence deals with Italian companies, the party claimed that the ban on Leonardo was lifted shortly after PM Modi’s meeting with his then-Italian counterpart Mario Draghi in October 2021.
For its third question, the Congress said, “To pave the way for a successful meeting, you also dropped all the charges against the two Italian Marines accused of killing Indian fishermen. Is your desire for approval by foreign leaders stronger than your desire to investigate corruption in Indian defence deals or to do justice to Indian citizens? Will we now see the Adani Group getting involved in deals with Italian defence companies?”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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