The carousel of sinister claims and recriminations over the Adani scandal continues to spin. On Friday, the Congress tried to prise open another Pandora’s Box that hove into view after a Swiss investigation into money laundering charges appeared to engulf the Indian conglomerate because of its ties to a Taiwanese crony businessman Chang Chung-Ling.

Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh put out a tweet on X that drew on a startling Hindenburg Research revelation last night that the Swiss authorities had frozen six accounts belonging to the group.

Ramesh, however, clarified that the “Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office has frozen five accounts containing $311 million (Rs 2610 crore) that belong to Chang Chung-Ling, following an investigation by the Money Laundering Reporting Office of Switzerland (MROS) that began on 28 December 2021.”

He went on to claim that the Swiss Federal Criminal Court had passed an order on August 9 “dismissing a challenge to the freezing”.

Ramesh said the court had said in its order that these “opaque funds” are believed to ultimately belong to a corporation that is “suspected of engaging in illicit activities, including money laundering and embezzlement.”

The Congress MP did not name the corporation but he seemed to insinuate the connection by saying that the Swiss court had found that Chang and his associates were engaged in market manipulation — “something that the Adani Group has been accused of for many years.”

The Swiss investigators had contended that these accounts were involved in forgery, credit fraud and money laundering, he claimed. He went on to add: “Clearly some financial crimes are too much even for the Swiss.”

“Chang’s close links with the Adani group are no secret,” Ramesh said. Last year, several newspapers including Financial Times and The Guardian had published reports based on investigations by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that spilled the beans on Chang’s links with the Adani group.

Arguing that Chang had already been accused of being hand in glove with Vinod Adani in funnelling money into India, Ramesh said: “It is imperative for the Supreme Court to take control of the Adani investigation and for a JPC to be convened immediately to investigate the full scope of the Adani Mega Scam.”