New Delhi: In the eighth installment of its ‘Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun’ protest campaign, the Congress questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on why, despite earlier findings by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), there was no “urgency by the Indian regulators to investigate the suspicious jump in Adani stock prices over the last three years”.
In a statement posted by the party on its official Twitter handle, on behalf of General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh, the party questioned the central government’s silence over “fresh collusion” between stock broker Ketan Parekh, convicted in 2008 for manipulating the markets and the Adani group.
The Congress party has been demanding the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the Adani group after a report by US short-seller firm, Hindenburg Research, alleged stock market manipulation by the conglomerate.
Notably, the PM, during his two addresses to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha last week, skipped any mention of the Adani Group, or the damning report by American short-seller Hindenburg Research.
In the first of three questions released on Monday, the party cited a 2007 SEBI order that had found the entities associated with Parekh indulging in manipulative practices to influence the price in the scrip of Adani.
The Congress said that a 2007 SEBI ruling following an investigation into excessive volatility in the shares of Adani Exports (now known as Adani Enterprises) between 1999 and 2001 had found that entities associated Parekh had indulged in “manipulative activities such as synchronised trading/circular trading and creation of artificial volume to influence the price in the scrip of Adani”.
The party further said that it bore “a disturbing resemblance to the current allegations against the Adani Group, the difference being that the stock manipulation is now being done by opaque offshore entities,” questioning SEBI’s silence over “extreme rise in Adani stock prices after 2020.”
In its second question, the party delved into the possibility of Parekh’s current links with the Adani Group.
“A close relative of his (Parekh’s) has worked with Elara Capital, the firm whose India fund had 99% invested in Adani stocks. Elara also is known to have had a relationship with the chartered accountant Dharmesh Doshi, a Parekh associate who absconded from India in 2002 (sic)”, said the party statement.
The party asked if the Modi government is “turning a blind eye to the fresh collusion between Parekh and Adani Group, a relationship that goes back 25 years”, given the serious allegation that Elara is a front for the Adani Group.
Citing the cases of Harshad Mehta and Parekh who engaged in large-scale cases of stock market manipulation in the 1990s, the party, in its third and final question, pointed to a precedence of the past [Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party] governments allowing the setting up of Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs) to investigate these cases.
Former PM P.V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government had agreed to set up a JPC in 1992 in the Harshad Mehta case, while the a JPC instituted by Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government investigated the Ketan Parekh case in 2001.
“What are you afraid of? Do you fear that a truly independent investigation might implicate you personally in the Adani Group’s wrongdoings?”, the party asked the Prime Minister.
Union minister Piyush Goyal alleged that the “opposition didn’t allow the House to function” despite repeated requests by the Chair.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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