Hyderabad: Billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 250 million bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts.
US prosecutors charged Adani, 62, his nephew Sagar and other defendants for paying over USD 250 million in bribes between 2020 and 2024 to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts on terms that could potentially bring in more than USD 2 billion in profit.
The Adani Group however labeled the charges as baseless.
What is Indictment?
As per the Legal Information Institute website, an indictment formally charges a person with a crime. During an indictment proceeding, a grand jury determines if there is adequate basis for bringing criminal charges against a suspected criminal actor. An indictment is one of the two options a prosecutor has to formally charge a person with a criminal offence:
- Indictment issued by a grand jury
- Criminal complaint filed directly to the court. In this case, the prosecutor does not need to get an indictment from a grand jury.
The indictment enables the prosecution of a suspect for the offences charged. An indictment is a constitutional guarantee that nobody can face a criminal trail without being previously notified of the alleged criminal offenses.
Proceedings:
As per the Legal Information Institute website, each state statue determines its indictment proceeding. Generally, the prosecutor will present evidence to a grand jury during an indictment proceeding. After the prosecutor has presented the evidence, the grand jury must decide whether there is an adequate basis for bringing criminal charges against a suspect and, therefore, issue an indictment against them. The criminal charges, evidence, witnesses, and deliberations are sealed and are not available to the public.
The Legal Information Institute website further states that each state also establishes the content of an indictment. However, Rule 7 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides a list of minimum information that an indictment must contain and that follows for most states.
It further states that it includes - plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged.
It also stated that usually the suspect's identity is unknown - for the purpose of an indictment referred to in section 3282 of title 18, United States Code, for which the identity of the defendant is unknown, it shall be sufficient for the indictment to describe the defendant as an individual whose name is unknown, but who has a particular DNA profile, as that term is defined in section 3282.
It also includes citation of the statue or regulation that was allegedly violated and signature from a government attorney.
