About a decade ago, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), operating under the Union Ministry of Finance, detected potential large-scale fraud in coal imports. This involved 40 coal importers, including major names like Adani Group, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani’s Reliance Group, Essar, Jindals, and others.

These billionaires and large corporations, reportedly close to the BJP, were accused of inflating the cost of importing Indonesian coal for Indian power plants, leading to increased electricity bills for Indian consumers. Between 2015 and 2016, at least six questions were raised in Parliament addressing the Ministries of Finance, Power, and Coal regarding the alleged overvaluation of coal imports. The standard response from these ministries was that the matter was under investigation by the DRI.

In Parliament, any ministerial promise to take action is considered an assurance. Such assurances must be fulfilled within three months and are monitored by an assurance committee, which ensures that promises made in the Houses are kept. Therefore, the ministries’ statements from April 2015 onwards, asserting that the Adani Group and others were under investigation, were recorded as assurances. This obligated the government to complete the investigation and update Parliament on its findings.

For the next six years, the assurance committees of both houses of Parliament repeatedly pressed the government to disclose more information about the investigations, but they continually faced obstacles.

The Reporters’ Collective analysis reveals that over the past nine years, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government assured Parliament at least seven times that it was investigating alleged scams by the Adani Group and other corporations. Multiple ministries committed to sharing the status and results of these investigations.

However, as public attention waned and media focus shifted, the Union government quietly reneged on its promises to conduct thorough investigations and report the findings to the public via Parliament, according to The Reporters’ Collective.

Adani responded to the platform, stating, “As a responsible corporate, for valuation and clearing of cargo, we have been adhering to all standard rules and regulations stipulated by the Indian Customs authorities.”

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