Senior advocate, BJP leader, and former Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Jethmalani on Wednesday spoke about the controversy surrounding allegations of bribery against the Adani Group, dismissing the claims as ‘baseless’ and “politically motivated”.
Speaking to India Today TV, Jethmalani slammed the indictment filed in a US court, calling it a ‘weak’ and ‘malafide’ attempt to tarnish the reputation of one of India’s leading industrial groups.
“The US indictment smacks of ulterior motives and appears to be a smear campaign,” the senior advocate said.
Referring to allegations that Adani Group executives had promised or paid bribes to secure deals related to renewable energy projects in Andhra Pradesh, Jethmalani pointed out inconsistencies. “There is no consummated offence here — only the inchoate offence of conspiracy, which is extremely difficult to prove,” he noted.
“There is no evidence that bribes were actually paid. If bribes were paid, the indictment would clearly name the bribe-takers, specify the amounts, and document when and where the transactions took place,” he added.
Jethmalani accused the opposition Congress of jumping on the indictment without evidence. He argued that using such documents to launch political attacks against the BJP-led government was inappropriate and detrimental to India’s interests. “It is unfair for an entire political party to rely on a scrap of paper called an indictment without evidence and condemn a man,” he said.
Responding to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s statement calling for Indian investigative agencies to act, Jethmalani said, “The Congress claims this is a moment of reckoning for institutions like the ED, CBI, and SEBI. But what reckoning can happen without evidence? These agencies cannot investigate based on speculation alone”.
In a separate interview with India Today TV, senior advocate and Congress MP Manish Tewari said that the US indictment on the Adani Group is something that the Indian Parliament must discuss and also questioned the accountability of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
“Without going into the merits of the indictments, the fact is that it is incumbent upon the Indian Parliament to deliberate as to what kind of message about India’s business environment this sends to the global community. Going back to the Hindenburg report which came out in 2023 and the subsequent brouhaha over it which even led to the Supreme Court’s intervention, the fact is who regulates the regulator. If the securities and exchange commission was unable to find fallacies and anomalies allegedly with what was happening with Adani conglomerate, what were they doing?” Tiwari questioned.
Responding to the defenders of the Adani Group who claimed the US indictment to be “politically motivated”, Tewari said that America guards its political independence, adding that there is a concrete wall between the country’s executive and the judiciary.
“We can all tilt at windmills and have our respective conspiracy theories, but be that as it may, I think the larger systemic institutional issue which the indictment of certain companies of the Adani Group has thrown up deserves the attention of the Indian Parliament and should not be swept unde the carpet,” he added.
Last week, a US court indicted Gautam Adani, his nephew, and several others for allegedly promising Rs 2,029 crore in bribes to state government officials in India for securing solar power contracts between 2020-2024.
