Bombay High Court acquits Gautam Adani, Rajesh Adani in SFIO’s ‘share-rigging’ case
The high court passed the verdict on appeals by the Adanis and AEL challenging the sessions court order, argued through senior advocates Amit Desai and Vikram Nankani.
The case is about alleged market regulation violations worth Rs 388 crore for which the Serious Fraud Investigation Office had charged the chargesheet in 2012
Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) chairman Gautam Adani and managing director Rajesh Adani in a Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) case of share price manipulation.
A single-judge bench of Justice Rajesh N Laddha set aside and quashed an order of a sessions court that had denied discharge of the Adanis and AEL in the case of alleged market regulation defaults of Rs 388 crore.
The high court delivered the judgment on appeals of the Adanis and AEL against the sessions court order, submitted through senior counsels Amit Desai and Vikram Nankani.
In November 2019, a Mumbai sessions court had reversed a 2014 magistrate court order that had acquitted AEL and Adanis on charges of cheating and manipulation of AEL share prices by entities controlled by stockbroker Ketan Parekh, the prime accused in India‘s largest stock market scandal of 1999-2000.
The SFIO had submitted the chargesheet in this matter in 2012. The sessions court had issued the order on a revision petition.
Sessions judge D E Kothalikar had stated that the investigation by the SFIO “prima facie“ found that the Adani Group promoters and Ketan Parekh gained “unlawful gain“ of about Rs 388.11 crore and Rs 151.40 crore, respectively, through suspected price manipulation of the shares of AEL, the flagship company of Adani Group.
In December 2019, the high court had suspended the sessions court order and the same was time and again extended till date. In February 2023, the high court asked the SFIO, which comes under the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs, whether it had requested a hearing of a case after one year – no hearing had been held after the February 10, 2022 order perpetuating interim stay – because of the “scenario outside“.
The Adani group was then embroiled in a scandal after the Hindenburg report charged the group of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.”.
