Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani on Wednesday slammed the Congress party for "blindly relying on an indictment" to make "baseless statements" against Indian industrialists and the Government of India.
Jethmalani's remarks came after the Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, along with his nephew Sagar Adani and senior executive Vneet Jaain, were cleared of bribery charges by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), as confirmed in a recent filing by Adani Green Energy Ltd. (AGEL) with the stock exchanges.
Addressing a press conference here, Jethmalani described the indictment as a "conspiracy to halt India's growth story," asserting that the allegations lacked credible evidence.
"It clearly is an attempt, although it emanates from a court in the US... given the nature of the indictment, the sketchy evidence, and some very important circumstances, this seems to be a hatchet job," Jethmalani said.
He accused the "Democratic deep state apparatus" in the US of hostility towards the Indian government. "It is obvious now that part of the Democratic deep state apparatus – there are two deep states in America – the Republican deep state and the Democratic deep state. The Democratic deep state has, for some reason, after 2023, turned extremely hostile towards the present government," he claimed.
Jethmalani elaborated on the indictment, pointing out its lack of relevance to Indian laws.
"First of all, no offence is alleged in the indictment against any of the Adanis or Adani Green. There is no single piece of evidence in this indictment, nor has the Congress party, which today has again asked for an adjournment motion for discussion, provided any evidence of infractions of Indian law. Even the indictment of the US court does not talk about any bribery in India," he said.
"The indictment only mentions a conspiracy to bribe, but there is no violation of the Foreign Corruption Prevention Act in India," he added.
Criticising Congress for undermining Indian businesses, Jethmalani said, "The Congress party is relying blindly on an indictment against an Indian conglomerate which has undertaken useful businesses for India abroad, and it is trying to undermine them. This is a conspiracy to halt the Indian growth story; there is no doubt in it."
Speaking to IANS, Jethmalani dismissed the charges as "baseless and meaningless".
"The indictment from America is baseless and lacks evidence. Importantly, the allegations of legal violations concern bonds issued by Adani Group and Adani Greens in the US. However, Adani Greens, which issued the bonds, has not been named or indicted; the group is not named as accused in this, so the allegations are meaningless," he said.
In a direct swipe at the Opposition, Jethmalani advised restraint and urged them to substantiate their claims before making demands.
"I will only advise the opposition: first of all, do not make your demands on the basis of an indictment. You should see that there is some basis, some proof to this indictment on which we should establish our authorities or JPC," he said.
Meanwhile, in its filing, AGEL has cited the news reporting by various media houses on the bribery and corruption charges against Adani Officials as 'Incorrect'.
"Media articles which state that certain of our directors namely Mr Gautam Adani, Mr Sagar Adani and Mr Vneet Jaain have been charged with violation(s) of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the indictment. Such statements are incorrect," said the statement filed by Adani Green Energy Ltd.
"Mr Gautam Adani, Mr Sagar Adani and Mr Vneet Jaain have not been charged with any violation of the FCPA in the counts set forth in the indictment of the US DOJ or civil complaint of the US SEC," it added.
In a legal indictment, count refers to individual charges against a defendant.
The DoJ Indictment, which has five counts, does not have any mention of and has excluded Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani or Vneet Jaain in Count One: 'Conspiracy to Violate the FCPA'; neither does it have mention of these three names in Count Five: "Conspiracy to obstruct justice."
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