Opposition parties on Thursday demanded an investigation by a parliamentary panel or a Supreme Court-appointed committee into allegations of fraud against the Adani Group that have triggered an unprecedented stock crash.
Here are the 10 latest developments in this story:
- The parties also demanded the suspension of regular parliament proceedings to discuss the risk to Indian investors from the continued slide in shares of the Adani Group following fraud claims by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.
- Gautam Adani’s business empire, which counts the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) among key investors, has lost more than $100 billion in value since the charges were made public last week.
- Leaders of several opposition parties met in the morning to whack out a joint strategy to take on the central government during the Budget Session, and decided to seek a discussion on the Adani Group issue.
- The meeting in the chambers of the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, had leaders of 13 parties, including the Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, DMK, Janata Dal-United, and the Left.
- Nine parties have filed a notice for discussing the Adani stock crash in parliament. In Rajya Sabha, the motion was moved by Mr Kharge, the Congress chief, AAP leader Sanjay Singh and K Keshava Rao, an MP from Telangana Chief Minister KCR’s party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore filed a similar adjournment motion in the lower house.
- Mr Kharge, in his motion, demanded a discussion on “investment by LIC, public sector banks and financial institutions in companies losing market value, endangering the hard-earned savings of crores of Indians.” The BRS said the Hindenburg report “exposes the dangers to which the Indian people and economy are subjected to”.
- AAP MP Sanjay Singh told news agency ANI, “I have written a letter to PM (Prime Minister Narendra Modi), Enforcement Directorate, and the CBI demanding the confiscation of [Gautam] Adani’s passport, or else If he also flees from the country like other industrialists and capitalists, then crores of people of this country will be left with nothing.”
- Since the report came out last week, the Adani Group’s finance chief has called the Hindenburg report a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India’s highest courts”.
- On Sunday, the firm issued a 413-page statement that it said rebutted all of Hindenburg’s claims, calling it an attack on the “growth story and ambition of India”. Hindenburg said Adani’s statement failed to answer most of the questions raised in its report.
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On Thursday, hours after the group cancelled a sale of shares in a Follow on Public Offer or FPO, its founder Gautam Adani released a video message to investors insisting that the fundamentals of his group are “strong” and that its record on paying back debt was “impeccable”.
Both Houses of Parliament were on Thursday adjourned after leaders of several Opposition parties demanded a discussion over the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations against the Gautam Adani-led Group. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till 2 PM amid ruckus over the issue. The Opposition leaders met to evolve a joint strategy to take on the central government during the Budget Session and decided to seek a discussion on the Adani Group issue.
