Arrest warrant may be issued against seven people including Adani, efforts will also be made for extradition

New York: Arrest warrant may be issued against seven people including Indian industrialist Gautam Adani. Attorney Ravi Batra said that this matter can go much further. Along with the issuance of arrest warrants, there may also be extradition efforts. A prominent attorney here said this after civil and criminal charges were filed in the US in a multi-million dollar bribery case.

The US Justice Department has charged Adani, India's second-richest man, and his nephew Sagar Adani, along with seven others, with bribing officials in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to buy expensive solar power. However, the names of the officers have not been disclosed in this.

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These projects are expected to generate profits of more than $2 billion for the group over 20 years. However, Adani Group has denied the allegations, saying the allegations made by US prosecutors are baseless and the group 'complies with all laws'.

Indian-American lawyer Ravi Batra told news agency PTI on Thursday that US Attorney Brian Peace has the authority to issue arrest warrants against Adani and seven others and send them to where they live.

Ravi Batra said that if that country has an extradition treaty, as India does, then as per the bilateral agreement between sovereign nations, the country of origin must hand over the person extradited to the US. There is a process that the country of origin must follow in accordance with its laws.

The India-US extradition treaty was signed in 1997. US Attorney Peace for the Eastern District of New York has announced a criminal indictment on five counts against 62-year-old Adani, his nephew Vineet S Jain, executive director of Sagar Group's renewable energy arm Adani Green Energy Ltd and its former CEO.

The indictment charges him with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and actual securities fraud for his role in a multibillion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from American investors and global financial institutions based on false and misleading statements.

The indictment charges former Azure Power Global chief executive officer Ranjit Gupta and former chief strategy and commercial officer Rupesh Agarwal and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Is charged.

In a statement on Wednesday, Peace said the accused orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure billion-dollar contracts and that Adani, Sagar and Jain “lied about the bribery scheme because they were US citizens.” And were trying to raise capital from international investors.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits making payments to foreign officials to influence action, make unlawful omissions, or obtain improper benefits.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also charged Gautam and Sagar Adani and Azure Power executives Cabanes with 'violating anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws'. (agency)