Adani Protest

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking the prosecution of short seller Nathan Anderson of US-based firm Hindenburg Research and his associates in India and the US, for allegedly exploiting innocent investors and the "artificial crashing" of the Adani Group's stock value in the market. Hindenburg engages in activist short selling, which involves selling borrowed stocks with the hope of buying the same at a lower price later. If the prices fall on the expected lines, the short sellers make a killing. The investment research firm, which invests its own capital, takes such bets based on its research, which looks for "man-made disasters" such as accounting irregularities, mismanagement and undisclosed related-party transactions. The public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by advocate ML Sharma also seeks directions for declaring short selling an offence of fraud against the investors, to be prosecutable under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), read .

India's finance secretary, when asked about the Adani Group companies' stock rout, said there was no cause for concern for depositors, policyholders or investors in any nationalised banks or LIC

French energy giant TotalEnergies, which had in past years taken stakes in two Adani group listed firms, on Friday said it has not performed any re-evaluation of its holdings because of volatility in stock prices following allegations of fraud. In a statement, the French firm said its investment in Adani group entities were undertaken in full compliance with the Indian laws and its own internal governance processes. The company has a 37.4 per cent stake in Adani Total Gas Ltd and a 20 per cent holding in Adani Green Energy Ltd.

Sources said Adani had not been able to tie up any financing for the coal project