At a time when the opposition parties are steadfast in their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe against the alleged irregularities by the Adani group and the Centre’s alleged protection cover to the group chairman Gautam Adani, the Trinamul Congress took the confrontation to a notch higher and demanded the arrest of the beleaguered industrialist.

Leading the party’s charge from the front, TMC parliamentarian Mahua Moitra alleged that, toeing the Centre’s stand on the matter, regulatory authorities like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) have turned a blind eye to those “irregularities” which were committed by “bending every rule of the land”.

“The TMC has pointed out that this government has been handing a virtual monopoly to the Adani Group and its associated enterprises in blatant violation of every regulation that India has. The SEBI, CVC and all the other regulators have turned a blind eye to the blatant bending of rules in every area possible,” Moitra said in a video message circulated by the party.

“Adani has taken over the ports and airports of this country. These are infrastructure projects which require Ministry of Home Affairs clearance and the Adani Group does this in spite of having a completely opaque shareholder structure with Mauritius-based funds whose ownership the government knows nothing about,” Moitra alleged.

“Aside from this the State Bank of India has over Rs 27,000 crore exposure to the Group. The Life Insurance Corporation of India has over Rs 40,000 crore exposure to the group. And in spite of that (the company) still signed up to be an anchor investor in the now-failed follow-on public offering. The regulators have been doing nothing but sitting on complaints that the opposition has made. We seek an early resolution to this sordid saga and the arrest of Mr Adani for breaking every possible law.” she demanded.

The demand was also made on a tweet from the party’s official Twitter handle with hashtag ArrestAdani.

Moitra further alleged that “the Adani Group’s meteoric rise in the last three years has been only and only due to the unfair advantage that proximity to this central government has given it.”

“The government has bent every single rule, has used agencies to scare the competitors of Adani in order to let Mr Adani create an empire that’s basically based on hot air. It has been using pump and dump (policy) for its share prices and has overvalued its stocks after which it got foreign investors to come in at these inflated valuations. It has, thereby, created this entire bubble into which Indian retail investors have bought in,” Moitra, adding to her set of allegations by means of an audio message, said.

“This is why some of their stocks have fallen 60-70 per cent since January and the regulators have done nothing to stop this. These are Indian public companies which have invested in Adani stocks. It is Indian retail investors who are suffering today and we are just sitting by and watching while this government is hand in glove with Mr Adani. We reiterate our demand that the government has to take swift action and arrest Mr Adani,” she asserted.