Congress Party senior leader Jairam Ramesh. File
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on May 22 said the “tempo of revelations about the Modani MegaScam has also picked up as the election momentum of the INDIA coalition accelerates”.
An investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), reported by The Financial Times, has found that dozens of shipments of low-quality, high-ash coal bought cheaply by Adani from Indonesia in 2014 were sold fraudulently at three times the price to the public sector Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) as high-quality, low-ash coal, the Congress leader said in a statement.
“The tempo is picking up and very soon there will be a JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee] to investigate it fully,” Mr. Ramesh wrote posting the statement on X.
“Adani made excess profits of ₹3,000 crore from this while the common person was made to suffer overpriced electricity and elevated air pollution,” the statement added.
“This is yet another example of the impunity with which the PM’s close friends have enriched themselves in the past decade by violating the law and exploiting the most vulnerable Indians as they are left to struggle for basic needs like cheap electricity and clean air. Air pollution kills 20 lakh Indians every year. Amrit Kaal for the PM and his cronies is Vish Kaal for everyone else,” it said.
Mr. Ramesh alleged that the Prime Minister “may have helped Adani to stall all the investigations carried out into its illicit activities in India, but the information pouring in from Indonesia and other countries has only shown how close those investigations were to unveiling the truth before PM Modi bailed out his partner…” The Congress leader said that “all this will change when INDIA takes office next month”.
A JPC will be set up within one month to investigate the ‘Modani MegaScam’ the illegal over-invoicing of coal and power equipment, the laundering of ₹20,000 crore of illegal proceeds back into Adani companies, the manner in which the Modi regime forced Indian businesses to divest their assets to Adani and the cost that Indian consumers have paid in high electricity prices and airport fees to enrich the PM’s cronies. Each and every element of the Adani Mod(i)us Operandi will be thoroughly investigated, the statement read.