New Delhi:

Punching holes in the allegations against Adani Group, senior lawyer and former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi today said the group’s founder chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani have not been accused of bribery or obstructing justice in the US. The senior lawyer addressed the media to counter misleading news reports on the US Department of Justice indictment.

“At the outset, I want to tell you that these are my personal legal views. I am not a spokesman for the Adani Group. I am a lawyer. I have been appearing for the Adani Group in several cases. I have gone through this indictment by the US court. There are five charges. It is very important to note that Count 1 and Count 5 are more important than the others. But neither in Count 1 nor Count 5 is Mr Adani or his nephew charged. This is like a chargesheet that charges individuals for specific acts. Count 1 is against certain other persons minus the two Adanis. It includes some officers and one foreign person. The first allegation is there is a conspiracy to violate the (US) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In that, the Adanis are not named,” he said.

Mr Rohatgi said the Adanis and others are named in counts relating to securities and bonds. “In Count 5, which relates to obstruction of justice, the Adanis and their officers are not named. The Adanis and others will respond to this chargesheet in the manner that they desire, they will also respond to stock exchanges. These are my personal views after taking a look at this chargesheet,” he said.

Mr Rohatgi then mentioned something “troubling” about the indictment document.

“When you look at a chargesheet, it must be specific to say that so and so has done such and such act, so and so has bribed certain individuals. But I do not find a single name or detail in the chargesheet as to who has been bribed, in what manner, and which department he belongs. This chargesheet is completely silent. I don’t know how one can respond to this kind of chargesheet. But I am sure the Adanis will take legal opinion from US lawyers,” he said.

Mr Rohatgi later told NDTV that the charges are “not specific”. “It is not written who was bribed, how much bribe was paid and which contract it was paid for. I can’t say if they will share more information later, but these papers have no mention of the amount of bribe or who it was paid to.”

(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.)

New Delhi:

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, amid the huge row about Lankan island Katchatheevu, has said what makes the case of different is that there was no give and take, which is the normal practice when territory is involved. India had given away the island to Sri Lanka, without getting anything in return, he underscored in an exclusive interview with NDTV today.

The tiny island near Rameswaram has become a political talking point over the weekend, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging the issue at a rally in Meerut and also on social media, hitting out at the Congress.

Katchatheevu — a disputed area since the British period — was given to Sri Lanka by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974 under an agreement with the island nation.

It had upset Tamil sentiments and resurfaced on the eve of the general elections. Amid BJP efforts to gain political traction in Tamil Nadu, state BJP chief K Annamalai had filed an RTI query.

In 2014, Mr Rohatgi, who was then the Attorney General, had told the Supreme Court that to retrieve Katchatheevu, “we have to go to war”. Asked about that statement today, he gave a background.

“Normally we have territorial exchanges. We had exchanges with Pakistan in the past… in 1958-1960 we had some exchanges with Pakistan. Because that was an aftermath of Independence and it was understandable,” Mr Rohatgi told NDTV.

“I remember some years ago, the current government also had some exchanges with Bangladesh. It was some enclaves. Some give and take of territory can happen but in this case it was only give… The island was handed over to Sri Lanka. Why the island was handed over, what did we get in return, these are questions the Congress should answer,” he added.

His remarks also address Opposition questions on why the government has not taken action on the issue since coming to power in 2014.  

Yesterday, Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK commented that if PM Modi was keen on Katchatheevu, he could have reclaimed that island during his 10 years in office. “Why did not he take up the Katchatheevu issue?” senior party leader RS Bharathi has said.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had pointed out that the BJP-led government had made a similar “friendly gesture” to Bangladesh regarding the exchange of border enclaves.