New Delhi:The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the Life Insurance Corporation of India was being forced to invest public money in the Adani group and demanded the government should urgently set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the issue.
“Very clearly, the LIC is being forced to use its policyholders’ funds to bail out the PM’s favourite business group which is under siege. This makes the constitution of a JPC all the more essential and urgent,” Congress communications in charge Jairam Ramesh said. According to Ramesh, the LIC’s investment in the Adani group has been increasing over the past few years and the public insurance company bought as many as 3.75 lakh shares in Adani Enterprises between January-March 2023.
“Serious questions began to be raised about the Adani Group on January 24, 2023. Since then, new revelations about the group are emerging every day. Now, it turns out that LIC’s holding in Adani Enterprises had further increased to 4.26 percent by the end of March 2023. This increase took place at a time when the market value of the Adani Enterprises’ stock had fallen by almost 60 percent. LIC bought as many as 3.75 lakh shares in Adani Enterprises during the January-March 2023 quarter,” said Ramesh.
The Rajya Sabha member further said that at the end of June 2021, the LIC had a 1.32 percent holding in Adani Enterprises, one of the listed companies of the Adani Group but such LIC investment increased over a year and a half. “Within a space of 18 months, by the end of December 2022, LIC’s holding in Adani Enterprises had reached 4.23 percent,” said Ramesh in support of his latest charge.
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The Congress had stepped up its attack on Adani group after a US short-seller Hindenburg Research came out with a report on the Adani group functioning a few months ago. The report led to a meltdown of the Adani shares on the stock exchange and resulted in heavy losses to the investors, including those of the LIC and public banks, whose money had been invested in the corporate giant.
The Congress demanded a JPC probe alleging links between PM Modi and businessman Gautam Adani who benefited from his friendship with the premier. Recently, Ramesh had alleged links between the Adani group and a Chinese company PMC Projects involved in several infrastructure projects in India saying the foreign firm had been probed by the central agencies earlier.
“This raises fresh questions about the Adani Group’s China links. As we have repeatedly pointed out in our Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun series of questions to PM Narendra Modi, the Chinese citizen Chang Chung-Ling is closely associated with the Adani Group. His son owns PMC Projects, a firm that has constructed ports, terminals, rail lines, power lines and other infrastructure assets for the Adani Group. The Adani Group and PMC were alleged to be involved in a Rs 5,500 crore power equipment over-invoicing scam by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. And the Adani Group has been known to have operated at least two Shanghai-based shipping companies, one of which was involved in the illegal sale of petroleum products to the close China ally North Korea,” said Ramesh.
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