Rajesh Adani held for fraud,gets bail

Designated senior counsel B B Naik who appeared for Rajesh Adani,said Rajesh’s elder brother Vasant Adani had moved a habeaus corpus petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking that he should be produced before the court immediately as CBI has detained him without providing any reasons or details. The next hearing in the case is posted for March 2.

The CBI had originally planned to present Adani at the Rural Magistrate’s Court here to seek a transit remand and a large crowd of media persons and lawyers of the Adani group waited for them there to turn up. But,the investigating agency changed its plans at the last moment and a CBI team flew with Adani to Mumbai in the evening en route to Goa where they said he will be presented before a magistrate. CBI sources said this was because “the situation was getting heated up in Gujarat’’.

Rajesh Adani is the younger brother of the group’s founder chairman Gautam Adani,who figures among the 10 richest Indians in the Forbes list.

Rishiraj Singh,CBI deputy director (Western region),told The Sunday Express that Rajesh Adani was arrested for undervaluation fraud related to import of naphta and petroleum products in Goa during 2006-2007. Singh said CBI sleuths also raided Adani’s home and premises during the day. According to Singh,the CBI sleuths had also raided the Mumbai home of the co-accused in the case,Ramakant Pilani,who heads a Mumbai-based firm Ganseh Benzoplast Ltd,but failed to nab him.

A case in this regard was registered in January 2008 by the Goa Anti-Corruption Bureau of the CBI. Singh added that cases have been filed against nine senior officials of the Goa Customs in the same case.

This is the second time that Rajesh Adani had been arrested. In 1999,the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had arrested him at Bhuj charging him with a similar duty evasion fraud worth Rs 1.4 crore. Soon after his arrest and orders of the local magistrate to remand him,Adani had claimed to have backache and spent time at a Bhuj hospital,until an appeal was moved at the Gujarat High Court which allowed him bail.

This time,CBI decided to take Adani to the Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar for a full check up,and then to the Cardiology department of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital,before presenting him before the local magistrate to seek the transit remand to take him to Goa.

Dipak Damor,SP CBI (Gujarat),said the CBI team from Goa had arrived on Friday evening but arrested Adani from his home only in the morning. “The CBI decided to take him for medical examination before the transit so as to avoid any claims of medical complications later.”

The Adani group,meanwhile,issued a statement claiming that the petroleum products that they imported were on behalf of the license and permission holders and it was the latter who were responsible for “fulfilling all formalities and the payment of duties.”

It observed that the Customs had not issued any showcause notice to Rajesh Adani or the Adani group in this regard and maintained that the CBI had issued his arrest memo without providing any reasons or details.

Significantly,the Adani group statement also claimed that “Rajesh Adani was not responsible for any day-to-day business operations’’. On the other hand,the group’s website says: “He (Rajesh Adani) is in charge of day-to-day operations of the Company and has been responsible for developing the business relationships of the Company. He also handles the marketing and finance aspects of the Company.”

Meanwhile,Adani’s residence – 14,Surajya Bungalows,Vastrapur – remained deserted except for armed private security personnel. The guards said his family left immediately after the CBI sleuths had arrived at the house.

Imported consignments

* Three consignments of imported naptha and furnace oil were kept by the Adani group at a warehouse in Goa,which was licenced to store only restricted items. According to CBI officials,the licence of the warehouse had expired as well. CBI sources said Adani Enterprises Ltd had reportedly been trading with Ganesh Benzoplast for a long time and is suspected to have stored other earlier consignments there as well.

* CBI officials said these consignments were kept at the Goa warehouse after being imported by Adani Enterprises Ltd,earlier known as Adani Exports.

* CBI sources said they are now verifying all the documents of the Advani group’s imports in the recent past. The details of the warehouses where the group stores imported goods are now being ascertained,said an official.