Congress leader moves SC for probe on Adani Group on Hindenburg charges

Also wants LIC and SBI probed for participating in Adani Enterprises FPO; says investors lost Rs 10 trillion following 50% decline in prices of group firm stocks

A writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, seeking an investigation against the Adani Group of companies in light of the Hindenburg report.

The plea seeks a probe against Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and State Bank of India (SBI) for allegedly investing in the Adani Enterprises FPO (Follow on Public Offer) at Rs 3,200 per share, when price was Rs 1,800 per share in secondary market.

The prayer in the petition sought an investigation against the Adani group of companies "for swindling lakhs of crores of public money and money of the government exchequer, by various investigating agencies, that is, CBI, ED, DRI, CBDT, EIB, NCB, Sebi, RBI, SFIO, under the supervision of the apex court".

"Direct investigating agencies to investigate the role of LIC and SBI to invest in the FPO of Adani Enterprises at Rs 3,200 per share, whereas the prevailing market rate of shares of Adani Enterprises in the secondary market was Rs 1,800 per share," the petition read.

The plea claimed that following the publication of the Hindenburg Research report on January 24, the share prices of the Adani Group of companies came down drastically and reached to almost 50 per cent of their prices on January 24, in various stock markets in India and abroad. Millions of people in the country lost more than Rs 10 trillion, as a result.

The court is already hearing the petitions filed by advocates M L Sharma and Vishal Tiwari on similar issues. Sharma’s plea seeks the prosecution of Nathan Anderson of Hindenburg Research and his associates in India and the US, for allegedly exploiting investors and the “artificial crashing” of the Adani group’s stocks.

Tiwari’s plea sought the court’s direction to set up a special committee to oversee a policy for sanctioning loans of more than Rs 500 crore given to big corporations.

In the last hearing, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, who is appearing on behalf of the Centre, said Sebi and other regulatory agencies were fully equipped, not only regime-wise but also otherwise, to take care of the situation.

Hence, the Centre has no objection to the constitution of a committee to protect investor interests as suggested by the apex court, he added.