(Bloomberg) -- Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up here.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said the US investigation into Gautam Adani involved private individuals, seeking to distance itself from the controversy.
The US didn’t inform India about its bribery probe of the billionaire, Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s External Affairs Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on Friday.
“We see this as a legal matter involving private firms and individuals and the US Department of Justice,” he said. “We have not been informed in advance on the issue. We have not had any conversation also on this particular matter with the US government.”
The Department of Justice hasn’t served any summons on Adani through India’s embassy in Washington, which is legal procedure, Jaiswal said.
“Any request by a foreign government for service of summons or arrest warrant is part of mutual legal assistance,” he said. “But such requests are examined on merits. We have not received any request on this case from the US side.”
The infrastructure tycoon was charged last week by US prosecutors for allegedly promising to pay $250 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure power supply contracts in the South Asian country. The founder of the port-to-power conglomerate is considered a close ally of the prime minister. India’s opposition lawmakers have asked for a probe into the businessman, and have also disrupted proceedings in parliament this week seeking discussions on the allegations.
On Adani’s bribery charges, a spokesperson for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party told reporters last week that “it is for the company to give clarification and defend itself. The law will take its own course.”
Modi’s allies have largely refrained from commenting on the US allegations, a sign of the political support the country’s second-richest man enjoys in India.
(Updates with comment from spokesman. An earlier version corrected the reference to US embassy in Washington.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.