Siddaramaiah joins Rahul Gandhi, says Adani must not be allowed to escape, seeks arrest

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the Centre was not taking action to have Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani arrested though an arrest warrant had been issued against him, joining AICC leader Rahul Gandhi in attacking the billionaire industrialist.

The CM’s attack followed the US Justice Department charging the billionaire with colluding in a corruption scheme to win solar energy contracts in India. In Andhra Pradesh, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu struck a cautious note when he informed the assembly that the government would study the charges that were in public domain and act on them.

In Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, in a chat with the media in Mysuru, said the Centre must take steps to have Adani arrested, and the high-profile businessman must not be allowed to escape. “The entire country knows who is protecting Adani,” he said, while blaming the media for not highlighting it.


The Adani episode has tarnished India’s reputation at the global level, but the BJP was defending him, he added. Could the BJP have done it without Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approval, the CM asked, while insisting that the BJP would do its best to save him.

In Bengaluru, Youth Congress members staged a protest against Adani and the PM over the businessman’s indictment by the US prosecutors.

The Kerala unit of the Congress called it a textbook case of organised systematic corruption. Referring to the Centre, the party said it didn't have any commitment to people of India, unlike the US Justice department, which it said, acted decisively to protect its investors.

Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, J&K, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh are among the states named in the US indictment of the Adani Group. TN electricity minister V Senthil Balaji, however, has denied any commercial deals between the state’s power utility and the Adani group.