New Delhi: Training his guns on Adani Group, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited a Financial Times (FT) report accusing the business conglomerate of over-invoicing in coal imports and fleecing people to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore in electricity rates.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, he attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked him to come clean on the Adani issue by initiating a probe into the matter.
Displaying a recent FT report, which claimed that the Adani Group appears to have imported billions of dollars of coal at prices well above market value, Gandhi said Adani over-invoiced coal imports and took out Rs 12,000 crore from "people's pockets".
“Adani bought coal in Indonesia and when it reached India, its price doubled. This over-invoicing of coal had an impact on electricity rates in the country and led to consumers paying higher electricity bills,” said Gandhi. He also said that this story would have brought down any government in the world but no action was being taken in India. "Adani has full protection of the government, everyone knows which power is behind him," he said.
The opposition party has also been questioning the financial dealings of billionaire Gautam Adani's Group after US research firm Hindenburg alleged "irregularities" and charged it with stock price manipulation.
The Adani Group has denied all allegations made in the Hindenburg report and claimed there had been no wrongdoing on its part. There was no immediate response from the group on the fresh allegations.
(With PTI inputs)