Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stated on Tuesday that it had no reason to defend billionaire Gautam Adani following his indictment in the United States over alleged bribery to secure power deals in India.
The main opposition party, Congress, has accused Modi and the BJP of shielding Adani and blocking independent investigations into his business dealings. Congress has also staged protests demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the matter.
U.S. prosecutors have charged Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and six others for their involvement in an alleged $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials in exchange for securing power supply contracts across five Indian states. The Adani Group has denied the charges, calling them “baseless,” and stated it will pursue all legal options.
Indian federal agencies, including the markets regulator, have yet to comment on the indictment.
BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal responded to the accusations, saying the party had no involvement in Adani’s case. “We are not against industrialists, but the law will take its course if any wrongdoing is found,” he said. His remarks came after a state government in Andhra Pradesh, which is governed by a BJP coalition, said it would consider canceling a power supply contract tied to the Adani Group and seek a federal investigation.
The U.S. charges allege that Adani and the others bribed Indian officials in Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir between 2021 and 2022 to obtain solar power contracts. All the states named were governed by opposition parties at the time, which have denied any wrongdoing.
Despite the charges, BJP’s Agarwal emphasized that Adani’s businesses across India would continue, stating that projects in various states would not be affected.
