Congress demands probe into coal scam involving 'Narendra Modi's friend' Adani

Taking the attack further against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over cronycapitalism the Congress on Monday targeted the centre over a stalled probe against the Adani Group and demanded a timebound independent probe by a Special Investigation Team SIT into an alleged Rs 29000crore scam involving overvaluation of coal importsDays after Adani Group moved the Bombay High Court seeking to quash all Letters Rogatory LRs issued by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence DRI the Congress launched a frontal attack on the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for being silent on the scam involving Modis industrialist friend Gautam AdaniJailtley writes blogs on every issue but he is silent on this He should write a blog on this He doesnt have the power to take any action said Congress spokesperson Jairam RameshEarlier a Singapore court had rejected Adani Globals plea seeking a stay to produce documents pertaining to coal imports to India mostly from Indonesia After that the group moved the Bombay High Court on August 28The DRI had alleged that the companies inflated the price of coal they were importing from Indonesia to siphon off money abroad and to avail higher power tariff compensationIn October 2014 Directorate of Revenue Intelligence announced that there was a huge scam on coal import and a probe was initiated on the overinvoicing of import of coal On March 31 2016 DRI gave a new statement that 40 companies are involved in this scam and it is worth Rs 29000 crore said RameshIn September 2017 a PIL was filled at the Delhi High Court by an NGO run by Advocate Prashant Bhushan and it demanded a Special Investigative Team SIT probeOn March 9 2018 DRI in a litigation in the Delhi High Court said there was no need for an SIT and that it was probing the 40 companies and showcause notices were issued to four companies he said adding the companies given notices belonged to Gautam Adani Anil Ambani and the Essar group Seventy per cent coal import in our country is done by Adani Group of Companies he saidAdani Group filed a litigation in the Singapore court urging the documents which are available with SBI State Bank of India Singapore branch on the issue should not be given to the Indian government he saidOn May 20 2016 the then Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia now Finance Secretary wrote to SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya saying the bank should provide those documents to DRI so that the probe could be completed he saidAfter four days she replied to Adhia saying the documents cant be provided because it was against Singapore law the Congress leader addedTaking a dig at Modi Ramesh said the Prime Minister went to Singapore three times in four years but could not get the documentsDid the PM raise this issue with them We want to ask him even after meeting Singapore Prime Minister Li Hsein Loong four times why he couldnt get those documents from Singapore SBI It is not a Singapore governmentrun organisation Even Singapore PM came to India once They have a good rapport he saidThe probe has been stalled for four years But no action has been taken against the company so far Ramesh said He also stated that the CBI had registered an FIR in the case on January 22 this yearHe asked the Prime Minister what action had he taken to get those papers from Singapore SBI They will keep writing letters but nothing will happen to the investigation because it is a case of crony capitalism Ramesh saidWe demand the the DRI probe should be impartial and timebound The government should talk to the Singapore government and all papers should be provided to the DRI he saidCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever