AMN / WEB DESK
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday, April 8, said he was not completely against the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group; however, a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective.
“I am not completely opposed to the JPC. There have been JPCs and I have been a chairman of some of the JPCs. The JPC will be constituted on the basis of a majority (in Parliament). Instead of a JPC, I am of the opinion the Supreme Court committee is more useful and effective,” Pawar said.
Talking to reporters, the NCP chief said if a JPC has 21 members, 15 will be from the ruling party and six from the opposition due to numerical strength in Parliament, which will create doubts on the panel.
Pawar added that the apex court decided to appoint a panel of retired Supreme Court judges with a direction of submitting the report in a specific time period.
The NCP chief also said he was not aware of the antecedents of United States-based Hindenburg Research, which has alleged stock manipulation and accounting fraud in firms belonging to billionaire Gautam Adani.
The report led to a massive sell-off in Adani Group companies’ shares. A recent report by M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023, showed that Gautam Adani lost $28 billion over the last year – or an average of Rs 3,000 crore per week in 2022 – and his fortune dropped by over 60 per cent from its peak (when he was the world’s second richest man) due to Hindenburg’s January report.